


Let The Game Begin.

by CescaLR



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, Gamer fic, Gen, It's not permanent though, Non-Canonical Character Death, Player Character!Ron, Ron is the Protagonist, SO ORIGINAL, Temporary Character Death, Yep., as in, life is a game!, ooh., uhm.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-16
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2018-08-22 19:14:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8297107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CescaLR/pseuds/CescaLR
Summary: Ron dies during the battle of Hogwarts. Given another chance, he goes back, and tries again.





	1. Game Over? No. Start Game.

**Author's Note:**

> OOPS.  
> My hand slipped.

There was many a thing Ron had expected during his life.

Dying young was, unfortunately, one of these things.

_Why?_ You ask, and he would (never) answer, _It’s a bloody miracle the second wizarding war had a break when it did._

(A miracle he wasn’t born into a world that Voldemort ruled over.)

_I was one, when Harry offed You-Know-Who._

(He’d been born the same year his uncles had died. A shining light, his mum said. A light for her to see in the darkness of grief.)

_Obviously, I don’t remember. I do remember the years of hearing about ‘the Boy-Who-Lived’; about some kid who was our hero._

_I met him ten years later, and he honestly was nothing like those bloody books and fairy tales everyone told everyone, loudly and in hushed whispers._

(Harry doesn’t know that some parents used his name to scare their children into being good little boys and girls, _and they bloody well better be, or he’d off em like he did He-Who-Must-Not-Be named._

Ron, being the only one of Harry’s very, very small group of friends that had been born and raised in the magical community, managed to keep him ignorant of that.)

So yeah. Ron had expected some kind of early death during his life; he’d never really thought the war had been over anyway.

(No thanks to his paranoid Great Uncle. Bilius was a bloody good chess player, though. Ron had beat him, and he’d proclaimed himself _well and truly done for_ (since Ron had been nine, at the time, and that was rather humiliating, to say the least) and gave Ron his chess set.

Ron didn’t know the significance at the time. He still doesn’t to this day.)

_I wasn’t sure when I’d die. There’ve been loads of times when it could’ve happened. First year, Second year… All the bloody years, really. Merlin’s beard._

(Ron knew he had to be at least _fairly_ lucky, to have escaped death as many times as he had during their ‘adventures’.)

_So yeah. Maybe I did expect to die young. What of it? Harry did to, you know. S’pose most people don’t; dunno why, seems bloody obvious to me._

(Far, far too obvious. But then, that had been their lives. Outsiders might be horrified; but Ron, Harry and Hermione? It was just par for the course.)

(Ron wasn’t bloody _stupid_ though. Yeah, maybe a bit dense, but if he had the chance to do things again?

He’d leave Hermione out of it, best he could.)

_Wasn’t expecting it to be that bloody snake though._

(Nagini, she’d (It was a she right?) lunged for them. Neville’d been too late – ‘Mione and him were done for.

_Well. At least me, anyway._

(He’d covered her as best he could. He vaguely remembers the snake biting, and Hermione’s profuse sobbing.

_He’d leave her out of it._ )

_Wait. I’m thinking, right? If I was dead, That wouldn’t be happening, I’d wager._

Blinking, (He could blink?) Ron gained his sight back. What had been simply black nothingness, now was a white expanse, a cavernous room.

He blinked again, and the area changed to one he recognised.

_The trapdoor._ He noticed. _I’m in Fluffy’s room. Third floor corridor. The hell?_

Spinning around slowly on the spot, Ron took notice of his options. Before he could decide anything though, a voice interrupted his thoughts.

“Well, if it ain’t my great nephew.” The voice spoke, rough and gruff and yet somehow warm and comforting.

He spun back around, to see a man he hadn’t seen since he was ten.

“Uncle Bilius.” He replied in greeting, oddly unsurprised.

Ron looked around again. “Where are we?”

The old man rolled his eyes. “Well, where d’ya think, Ronald?” He asked, rhetorically. “Limbo, ain’t it?” His uncle looked around, confused. “Some room in ‘Ogwarts, I’d wager.” Ron stared. “Limbo?” Bilius looked upwards, as if exasperated. “Yeah, _Limbo._ Place between life an’ death, if I ain’t so mistaken.” He looked at Ron. “Bit of an odd place for transitioning, though I suppose it makes sense for ya.”

Ron blinked. “Makes sense?” He echoed.

“Did’ya lose all common sense when ‘Ah left?” He demanded. “Blimey! First fam’ly member that cares enough for me ta be the one to talk to yeh, and y’ve lost yer bleedin’ _logic.”_ He complained. “What ‘appened to that kid who beat a Chess Master when ‘e was littler than I were when I started learnin’? What ‘appened to yeh _common sense?”_

Ron grew angry. “My bloody _common sense_ is where I left it – _when I wasn’t dead._ ”

There was a pause, then the old man laughed; a good, large belly-laugh that lasted a good while. The man shook his head. “Ya chose a right old codger to grow up like, didn’t ya?”

Ron looked at him, confused. “Yeh remind me of myself when I was your age. Short tempered, not the brightest with emotions, but loyal to a fault. I didn’t ‘ave that great walloping of self-esteem issues and the jealousy that comes with though. Interfered with ya friendships that did, didn’t it?”

Ron was reluctant to admit he was right, but he felt a sense of calmness he had never felt while alive. There was a pause. “This place is messing with my head, isn’t it?”

His Uncle grinned. “Don’t want ya messin’ up the place – or your choice, thinkin’ about it.”

There was another, longer pause.

“My choice?” Ron inquired.

Bilius nodded, once, an incline of his head. “Yer choice.” He repeated. “Yeh can go on, or yeh can live a new life. If ya choose the second – well. I’ll let’cha see what that’s all ‘bout.”

_He’s being as bloody vague as the Headmaster was on his better days._ Ron grumbled to himself.

As if he could hear Ron’s thoughts, His Great Uncle smiled. “I gotta go soon – us dead people ‘ave a lot more to do than you livin’ lot give us credit for. But I need ta tell ya this – the trapdoor’ll lead you _on,_ but the exit – well. That’s the _Exit,_ ain’t it?” And with that, and a blink of Ron’s eyes later, his dead relative was gone.

“Well. Bugger.” Ron muttered to himself. _What kind of choice is this?_  “Won’t even tell me what I’ll get myself into if I do chose a new life.” For a moment, he thinks. _If I go down the trapdoor – which isn’t ominous about my fate if I do, bloody hell – I’ll see my friends and family when they all kick the bucket too, right? And I suppose there’s already a few of them there now, including Bilius. No idea who’s died already though._

But instead of the option that would give him peace, peace for eternity with friends and family once they arrive, Ron hesitated.

_What if it lets me do this again?_

(Because that’s the question, isn’t it? Whether it will send him _home_ – if slightly different – or it will send him to some other life, unknowing and not remembering his last.)

Ron nods to himself, a decision made.

(For better, or for worse? We shall see.)

He turns around, walks towards the Exit door. With one last look, one final _goodbye,_ he leaves the trapdoor behind.

(He starts his Next Adventure. _Headmaster may have been barmy as all hell, but he wasn’t wrong about this.)_

The door closes shut behind him, and the room fades to a white expanse.

(It fades to blue, then shuts off. Black, and void. Ron wasn’t there to see it. He wouldn’t have recognised what it was, even if he were – pureblooded he is, and all that entails.)

* * *

 

Ron blinks to awareness, staring up at the orange ceiling of his room at the burrow.

_Bloody hell_ he mentally groans. _My head feels like it’s been wacked one too many times with a bludger._

_Wait._

Ron looks around – and notices the ceiling isn’t actually orange; that must have just been memory talking. No, it’s grey – the _whole room_ is grey and tones of grey, black and white.

(It’s greyscale, but then Hogwarts doesn’t teach ‘muggle’ subjects; so how would he know that?)

Ron looks around. He notes the differences between this room and his room – a chest where one isn’t, no bed (What had he been lying on?), his stack of comics now a… weird, muggle _machine_ (that was it, right? Hermione had been teaching him…) with buttons and things – _A computer, Ronald._ Her voice says, annoyed yet somehow infinitely fond – and various other small changes.

Ron stands, and walks over to the ‘computer’. Warily, he pokes at one of the buttons, and the thing whirrs to life, making him back away slightly.

When it is up and running, Ron sits down in front of it, on the floor, and stares at the… screen? Screen.

_Options._

It says, a neat kind of writing he’d never seen, all the letters exact and matching.

(Print. It was print.)

He continues reading.

_Options:_

_Difficulty._

_Extras._

_Language._

_Play style._

Frowning, he thinks, _Difficulty? Play style? What on Merlin’s bloody –_

Before he could finish that thought, A floating bit of parchment obscures his view. Swearing, Ron jumps back, startled, the parchment always staying in the direct centre of his view.

Once adjusted, Ron reads the parchment.

_Gaming for Wizards; A helpful guide by !%% &$£%& _

Blinking, he tried to read the last word, but after a minute or so gave up.

It was just a mess of things he didn’t understand, muggle symbols by the look of them.

Shaking his head, he moved on.

_This floating bit of parchment is known as an ‘alert’. For you, [Ronald Weasley] these will always be enabled, as you are a [pureblood noob] and therefore have literally zero knowledge of video games. Christ, this is going to be ridiculous, isn’t it? Teaching you what most kids in the muggle world have at least a slight grip on; in that they at least know vaguely what a video game is in the first place!_

_Never mind all that. Sorry. Let’s move on. Since this is all voice-commanded, just say ‘next’ to see the rest of this guide._

Ron did so, and did so, reading each page and trying his best to absorb all the information he had a nagging feeling he’d need to know.

It took a while (Hours, days, minutes, months, centuries, nanoseconds) but he was finally _done,_ and he knew the basics of the system.

Nodding to himself, he said “Close” and the message went away silently, there one moment and gone the next.

Ron went back to the options menu, and selected difficulty.

_Casual._

_Easy._

_Normal._

_Hard._

_Hardcore._

_Realistic._

_Real life._

Ron read through all of the descriptions, and immediately excluded hard, and all those afterwards.

The options were then greyed out, no longer available unless unlocked.

(The guide had been incredibly useful. Now he knew what he was doing, at least. Far more than what he’d known originally.)

Deciding that Casual was too easy (and too much of a copout) that option greyed out as well, and he got a message in the top left of his peripheral vision saying _You gained an Achievement! Say [Open] to know what it was._

Ignoring the message for now, and feeling a little bit like a cheat, he picked easy for now.

(Ron figured he could bring it up to normal, once he’d gotten the hang of everything. And since his life was in danger, here, he figured it wasn’t too cowardly.)

Exiting the menu, he called out “Open” and the message disappeared. Like before, in front of him in the centre of his vision something appeared. It wasn’t parchment; since that was for alerts. Instead, it was a book, and it flipped through it’s pages until it got to the one on Achievements.

_You have unlocked [1] Achievement(s)._

_The Achievements are greyed out and unknown until you unlock them. We have been told it can take many games until all have been revealed._

_Unlocked Achievements [1]:_

_No Time For Downtime._

_Description;_

_Well done! You aren’t a complete coward, and actually want some form of challenge in your life. There is no reward for this, aside from the knowledge that you didn’t choose the easy way out._

_Requirements;_

_Grey out ‘Casual’ in the options, difficulty menu._

_Locked Achievements: [????????????]_

Nodding to himself, Ron closed down the menu. The book closed, then shrunk down and disappeared in a flash of golden sparks.

Ron returned to the menu.

_Options:_

_~~Difficulty~~ _

_Extras._

_Language._

_Play style._

Understanding that difficulty would be greyed out once he’d selected it before starting, he moved onto play style, which is what he had been told was the best thing to got to straight after.

He clicked on play style, and was confronted with a few options.

_Action/RPG_

_Strategy/RPG_

_Action/Strategy_

There were more, but they had been greyed out. Noticing the little star thing next to all of them, he wondered what that meant.

An alert blocked his view again.

Blinking at the closeness of it, it took a few seconds to adjust.

Ron then read the words on the parchment.

_Oh, right. Forgot to mention that in my guide, sorry. So, these little ‘star things’ *; they’re called asterisks and are there when something might need explaining; since you chose easy level, they will always be there even after you’ve read them for the first time, in case you forget or something._

Ron nodded, and the alert dissipated into the air.

Obviously, Ron ignored the ones that didn’t have ‘strategy’ in the title.

(The others were greyed out.)

_Strategy/RPG*_

_*Strategy RPG is a combination of Strategy; a game style requiring, well, strategic know-how and is a good choice for those good at strategy games such as, for example, chess._

_RPG is ‘role-play games’ in that your character has stats and abilities, and will level up. You will also have traits; which as you level can be bought back and swapped out or gained. You can change them at any time you have enough points to, but every five levels you will gain ten points (more or less, depending on stats) that let you do what you will. There are also quests; which will grant you rewards and EXP – experience; which you can put into stats. Skill/Ability Points are gained every two levels, depending on stats the amount gained will change. Traits can also effect skill/ability point and experience gain. Points, either ability or trait, can be found simply by exploring or completing major quests/events. Events are spontaneous quests that you cannot sign up for but will instead stumble across. Jobs are similar to quests, except you only gain money and experience in Skills. Skills are your skills; ability to fight, cook, speak other languages, etc. Abilities are special skills; in that they cannot be learnt, only bought through levelling or finding ability/skill points scattered throughout instances. Instances are the open areas which you will be in in each part of the game; for you the first instance is the Burrow; the first base is Ron’s Room; the first medic is Mrs. Weasley/Mum, and the first teachers are your older brothers, and your Dad/Mr. Weasley._

_Mrs. Weasley is also the shop for general items and the food vendor; she can also give jobs and quests and teach cooking and ways to look after your household. Mr. Weasley is the shop for muggle items, and some other (technically) illegal things. He can teach enchanting (After book one ends, during the Summer) and Vaguely Muggle Knowledge (Some is true, some is not. +5 to Muggle Knowhow skill per lesson.)_

_There are 1000 levels per skill, 10 per ability, and infinite per stat._

_On easy level, you may respawn at your Base, or in the Medic area if necessary. You will carry gained skill/ability/traits and experience (with a -100 to the experience) between respawns. All things will carry across save games, aside from items/done quests._

Ron deliberated for a moment, then read the other option. Deciding he’d had enough action for one life, and the bonuses of the RPG genre were better, he chose _Strategy/RPG._

The other options were greyed out, and he was booted back to the options menu.

Seeing only language and extras left, he quickly set language to _British English_ and entered the Extras section.

_Extras are things you unlock during the game after completing specific tasks, much like Achievements. They are enabled through the options menu during gameplay._

Shrugging, Ron exited that menu, knowing he could do nothing there for now.

After doing so, the computer _poofed_ out of existence, and his comic book stack was back where it should be.

Seeing the trunk had a large padlock on it, and the other menu places were greyed out or otherwise unavailable, (Including the Player Character menu; but then since he’d picked RPG and one of the benefits was picking your own Avatar he wasn’t surprised) he walked to the door and placed his hand on the handle.

An alert popped into view.

_Would you like to start a new game, or load an old save?_

Load was greyed out, as he had expected, so he selected _new game._

Stepping through the door, he found himself in the bathroom, set up how his mother would set it up when she was giving them all haircuts.

Walking towards the mirror, he was given the option to change his appearance. Shrugging, as he’d never much cared really, but was intrigued all the same, he clicked _yes._

He was presented with a ridiculous amount of options, and balked until he saw the _basic character creation_ menu. Clicking on that, the options were lessened.

Not much, but at least there weren’t any options for _nose salion (That was probably wrong, but he didn’t care)_ or any other bloody strange option he didn’t get. 

There was a section for bonuses from his current build/body type/appearance, and to be brutally honest they weren’t great.

_Gangly frame._

_Body Type/Build. Description:_

_Tall, ain’t ‘cha? Big boned, but not broad shouldered, you don’t really seem to fit your body until you become of age._

_\- 3 to co-ordination (lessens by one per two years.)_

_\- 3 to certain activities until age = 17 (Quiditch, spell casting, potioneering, basically any activity that requires co-ordination. +2 to Keeping – all that extra arm length has to be good for something, right?)_

_-2 to Attractiveness, + 1 when over age = 17_

_Gives; Height Advantage, Clumsiness, Good Reach, Easily Spottable, Not Much Fits._

Ron sighed, knowing all of these disadvantages – having had them most of his life. (He hadn’t really thought about the advantages though. It was something to think about now, since he could change it.)

_Averagely Average;_

_Description._

_Not the best looking, but not too shabby neither. Decidedly average appearance._

_+/- 0 to Attractiveness._

_Gives; Blend In*, Who Was That Again?*_

Ron, confused by the bonuses, asked for them to be explained.

_Blend In*_

_Well, ain’t you average?_

_Gives; +2 to Hide In Plain Sight ability, gives Hide In Plain Sight ability. Doesn’t Level._

_Hide In Plain Sight;_

_Ability. Description:_

_Considering your looks, it’s not odd that you can disappear amongst the crowd._

_Gives; + 5 to stealth in public places. At level 4/8, gain buff. +5 per level._

_Who Was That Again?*_

_Ability. Description:_

_Either your looks, or your family background decrees that it would take more than a glance to remember your face. Or recognise it._

_Gives; +2 to stealth in restricted areas. -5% chance to be caught doing things that are… untoward. Each level adds +2 and -5%. At level 5 and 10, a new buff is added._

Ron was both surprised and confused by these bonuses; he’d always been very recognisable, considering his red hair and pretty much everything else about him made it obvious he was a Weasley.

Looking at the next one, he realised why.

_Distinctive Heritage._

_You sir, are definitely related to who you’re related to._

_Subclass; Weasleys’ Son._

_You are your family’s child; red hair, freckles, that annoying mark on your nose that looks like dirt. Definitely a Weasley._

_Negates*; Blend In, Who Was That Again?_

_*Only active when in the Wizarding World of Great Britain._

_Gives*; Instant Recognition, Ginger? Soulless._

_*The former is only active in the wizarding world of Great Britain. The latter is only recognised by those with ‘Gingers? Soulless.’, the companion trait._

Ron, now a little angry, demanded explanation.

_Gingers? Soulless._

_A muggle belief few hold – mostly used as a joke. Those who have ‘Gingers? Soulless’ believe it wholeheartedly._

_The idea that if you have red hair, you have no soul. It’s stupid, I know, but there you are._

Ron sighed, and looked at his other options.

It took a few, lengths of time he doesn’t know – it could have been seconds, it could have been days – until he’d decided.

_Tall Frame, Balanced Build._

Build/Body Type. Description;

_Not so shabby. You’re tall, but you aren’t gangly, thank Merlin. Your balanced build means you will start out doing decently in each area._

_+1 to co-ordination (You need it, considering how often you’d whack people in the face without it.)_

_-2 to stealth. (You’re at least a head taller than most. Pretty easy to spot, that is.)_

_+1 to attractiveness, then +3 when Str/End/Vit is above 50, or you are over age = 20. (Tall, and broad shouldered, it seems you managed to inherit the Weasley’s good looks, rather than their Gangly-ness. Thank Merlin.)_

_Gives; Height Advantage, Good Reach, Easily Spottable, Some Stuff Fits._

_Averagely Average;_

_Appearance. Description._

_Not the best looking, but not too shabby neither. Decidedly average appearance._

_+/- 0 to Attractiveness._

_Gives; Blend In*, Who Was That Again?*_  

Ron was perfectly fine with this; it would help them during seventh year if things pan out similarly and they have to hide in the muggle world.

(But not camping again, Merlin not camping.)

Now, for the hard part. Does he sacrifice his recognisability – which comes in handy _sometimes –_ for the ability to be more… useful, when it comes to their… adventures?

Yeah. Alright.

_Indistinctive Heritage._

_Subclass; Trait; Prewitt Puer._

_Your light brown, almost ginger hair isn’t all that recognisable as a Weasley trait, or a trait at all, for that matter. Good on you, your averageness is astounding._

_+/- 0 to attractiveness._

_Gives; none._

_Negates; none._

Though it doesn’t give him anything, it doesn’t negate anything either, so Ron’s fine with using his mother’s heritage rather than his dad’s.

Sighing, he says “Done” and the window closes.

Blinking at his reflection in the mirror, which looks similar yet different, he couldn’t really tell what his heritage was.

“Good.” Ron said to himself. “Right. Bloody hell, what’s next?”

Before he could do anything, an alert popped up.

_Right, you’ve done the thing. Good. Now, select your Stats, your traits and starting abilities – but be careful! You need to balance out your starting traits; you can have as many as you can afford of the ones requiring level 0, but you have to have at least three negative/balanced traits, and at least one negative trait. It’s to stop the game from being to easy, even on easy difficulty. At least you get wholly good traits; higher levels lock them out! Good luck; and remember, at the end, an alert will pop up detailing your Character, and afterwards you will be able to access the Char. Sheet; where you will be able to access all the things later. Cool? Cool._

The alert went away after he’d read it, and Ron went over to the chair in which he’d had many a hair-cut. However, that was not it’s purpose right now. Instead, a menu popped up – the detailed stats chooser.

Ron shrugged, and checked what he started out with.

_Ron Weasley. Lvl. 0. EXP – 1000. EXP – 50 / stat._

_Each stat requires 100 general EXP to level, and 50 EXP of its type to level._

Ron frowned. That might be a problem.

_You have enough to level up to ten in one, or seven in each with some left over. You can, of course, lean towards certain stats. MP and HP are different types of stats; you may level them with only EXP of the general sort. The guide should have told you what each entails._

Ron nodded. He was _fairly_ certain he understood the stats system.

_Str: 3 Int: 2 Wiz: 4 Vit: 5 Chr: 2 End: 4 Lck: 6 MP: 100 HP: 200_

_These are general stat levels for someone of your age (10, nearly 11). Your Luck is higher than most, and Int is on the lower side of average. Vit. Above average, but not over much. 3-4 is average. Some children, such as [Harry Potter] will have, say, Str:5 and End:8, because of their life situation, but have Vit:2, because of it as well._

Ron nodded. Makes sense.

_Your Int. is low because a) a lack of need/drive to improve, and b) self-esteem issues._

_Your Chr. Is low, because a) you have a temper and b) one of your traits is affecting it._

Annoyed, Ron moved on.

_Hint: I would check the Traits/Skills/Abilites sheets first; some give boosts while other’s have requirements._

Nodding, Ron did so. The first one he went to was the trait section; define himself before defining what he could do and all that.

_Traits._

_Trait points; 20._

_Early game traits cost little; but good traits cost more than balanced, and balanced cost more than negative. Get me? Good._

_Owned Traits;_

_Prewitt Puer [Caused by; Appearance.]_

_Light Is Good, Dark is Bad* [Can’t buy back; requirements not met]_

_Dumbledore’s Wo/Man [Group trait; many others have this, including [Harry Potter] and [The Weasley Family]] [Can’t buy back; requirements not met.]_

_Stubborn [buy back – 6 points.]_

_Slimy Slytherins* [buy back – 6 points]_

_Goody Gryffindors* [buy back – 5 points]_

_Hufflepuff? Schmufflepuff.* [buy back – 3 points]_

_Self-Righteousness. [buy back – 5 points.]_

_Loyal – To A Fault [Locked trait. Caused by; avatar – Ron Weasley.]_

_Self-esteem? Yeah, you have Issues.* [Locked trait, caused by; Family Situation]_

_Jealously Juvenile* [Linked trait. Caused by: Self-Esteem? Yeah, You have Issues]_

_No Tones Of Grey* [Linked trait. Caused by ‘Light is Good, Dark is Bad.’]_

_Chess Master [Locked Trait. Caused by; Avatar – Ron Weasley.]_

_Strategic Mindset [Locked Trait. Caused by; Chess Master.]_

_Emotional Range Of A Teaspoon* [Linked Trait. Caused by; Strategic Mindset, Chess Master.]_

_Casanova? Ha!* [Linked Trait. Caused by; Emotional Range Of A teaspoon]_

_Bloody Hell!* [Locked Trait. Caused by; Avatar – Ron Weasley.]_

_Arachnophobia [Locked trait; caused by – Fred & George Weasley]_

_At this age, most traits have not developed yet. Many traits are locked until after age = 14; as, according to the – ahem, according to your previous life, that is when you went through puberty. Lovely. That’ll be fun for you a second time, eh?_

_Available traits, Lvl 0:_

_Child prodigy._

_Balanced. Definition:_

_You are such a whiz kid, wow!_

_+5 to Int; however gain linked trait Know-It-All. +1 to Wiz, unless in dire situations. +10 to Theoretical Knowledge Skill, -10 to Practical Application. [shared trait; you have discovered [Hermione Granger] has this.]_

_Cost – 3 points._

_Fate’s Plaything._

_Balanced, I guess. Description._

_Never knew what to do with your life? Never fear! Fate either likes you, or has it in for you. We aren’t really sure. +15/-15 bonus on Luck Rolls; however, gain the linked traits; Danger Magnet, Nine Lives, Danger? Schmanger, Destiny’s Chosen. Gain Prophecy. [Shared trait; you have discovered [Harry Potter, Voldemort] have this trait.]_

_Cost – Free._

Ron blinked. Those actually made a lot of sense, now that he thought about it.

_Emotional Understanding._

_Good. Description;_

_Your parents raised you well, it seems. Your emotional range is more of a soup ladle, now!_

_Gain; +1 to Charisma. +1 to skill; Sympathy._

_Negates; Emotional Range Of A Teaspoon._

_Costs = 5 points._

Sighing, Ron picked that one, because he figured if Hermione wasn’t there, he might need to be a bit better about that whole thing. Grimacing, he noted the 15 points remaining. Rather than spend them on traits, he bought back Self-Righteousness, and Slimy Slytherins – Because Harry could have been one, and there’s no way he’s abandoning him if he is this time around. And the Self-Righteousness had to have something to do with his various stupid choices throughout the years.

They were gone now, and since (sadly) most of his traits were either balanced, or negative, (he could figure out what they meant on his own, thanks) he didn’t have to worry about buying negative ones.

Quickly, he picked up _Quick Learner_ and, more to cheer him up from the fact that he couldn’t get rid of his fear of spiders than anything else, gained _natural flyer._

(The first is self-explanatory, and the second simply gave him better flying skills and a higher skill gain for related skills, such as Quiditch.)

Sitting at a sad 0 trait points, and no way to redeem them, Ron moved on to abilities.

Noting his lack of _any,_ and feeling slightly miffed, Ron decided on some cheap ones (as he’d seen some he might want at level one).

He picked _parseltounge,_ though it made him feel uncomfortable, just so that secret conversations were actually possible in Hogwarts (at least, between him and Harry. It’d be dead useful making plans and not getting caught doing so – something that had happened far too much in Ron’s last life for his liking.)

Ron really wasn’t sure of the differences between traits and abilities, but it doesn’t matter, truthfully.

Shrugging, he chose Controllable Accidental Magic – mainly because he’d felt slightly embarrassed at making it snow that one time, in the middle of the great hall. (It said it was shared, but he didn’t know who by. Doesn’t matter.)

Ron noticed _Un_ controllable Accidental Magic – saw that Harry had that and _Emotional_ Accidental Magic, _and_ Accidental Magic Regardless Of Age (Which, apparently, he’d also had – so he simply took that one as well.)

To be honest, that explained a lot. Ron sniggered.

Knowing he could get the rest at a later date, he hesitated between the last two.

Deciding to throw caution to the wind, he chose _Sentient Wand_ – in that, his wand would come to his rescue at times it’s needed, shooting off spells and saving the day.

(Ron had thought it funny. That was literally the only reason.)

Done here, Ron went to skills.

Not particularly caring, or wanting to, he put some points in learning skills – simply so the Hermione conscience nagging him to do well at school this time around, since it wouldn’t do to be outdone by a bunch of firstees (ignoring he’d be one – since he’d lived through all of this previously, sort of) would it?

(The conscience wasn’t really Hermione, obviously, but it sounded like her and was nagging him to do schoolwork. He might be crazy, who knows?)

So yeah. He put some points into _Knowledge Inhaling,_ meaning he’d gain knowledge quicker, and _Schoolwork? Schmoolwork._ Which simply made it easier.

Once he was done with the knowledge based ones, he put some points into fighting skills, like _Duelling,_ etc. etc.

Once he was done with all _that,_ he honestly didn’t have that many left.

Shrugging, he put the remainder into _Strategy_ and _Spellcasting, Flying_ and _People Reading._

He figured that last one was about understanding how people work, or maybe seeing their character sheet. Either way, it would make it easier to judge a person properly.

Nodding to himself, he went back to his stats sheet, and found himself shocked.

_Ron Weasley. Lvl. 0. EXP – 1000. EXP – 50 / stat._

_Each stat requires 100 general EXP to level, and 50 EXP of its type to level._

_You have enough to level up to ten in one, or seven in each with some left over. You can, of course, lean towards certain stats. MP and HP are different types of stats; you may level them with only EXP of the general sort._

_Str: 4 Int: 4 Wiz: 5 Vit: 5 Chr: 4 End: 5 Lck: 6 MP: 100 HP: 200_

_Att. (Attractiveness) is locked until past age = 14. According to Word Of God, that is when everyone in the Harry Potter universe goes through puberty, apparently._

_Due to appearance; Will start at +1, unless prerequisite requirements have been met for +3. Can change throughout the years. If not, when age = of age, you will gain +3._

Ron sighs. He rolls his eyes, then puts his points into the stats.

_Str: 5 Int: 5 Wiz: 6 Vit: 6 Chr: 5 End: 6 Lck: 8 MP: 250 HP: 250_

Ron nods to himself. “Seems alright.” He mutters, then closes the menu. He feels himself booted out of the room, back to staring at the door with an alert in front of his face and his hand on the doorknob.

_Would you like to start the game?_

“Yeah. Yes.” Ron says, the Alert going at ‘yes’.

_Would you like to do the tutorial? That will be the first ten years of your life._

Ron grimaces.

_You may shorten it; and have the year from after your Uncle Bilius’ funeral to when you turn eleven. Is this preferable?_

Ron was still grimacing at the reminder, but nodded his acceptance.

_Short Tutorial; Easy Mode; Strategy/RPG; Custom Character._

_Enter Player’s Name:_

Ron blinked, then spoke, hesitantly (He’d always thought ‘Ronald’ never suited him. At least he could change that now.)

“Ron Bilius Weasley?”

The alert changed.

_Is ‘Ron Bilius Weasley’ Correct?_

“Yes.”

_Then The game shall start, in five, four, three, two…_

_One._

Ron lurched forwards, pulled through the door by some unseen force, and felt himself falling, falling through the endless void.

He landed, there was a sickening _crack!_ And all went black.

* * *

 

Ron blinked himself to awareness, groaning at the sudden light. A whispered _“nox”_ put it out, but he still flopped his arm over his eyes.

“Ronnie?” A quiet, warm voice asked.

Ron sat up, fast as possible, because the last time he’d heard his Mum’s voice was when he’d seen her battling two or three death eaters, on her way to helping Ginny with Bellatrix Lestrange.

(Ron didn’t want to think about their chances. After all, his mother was here, looking decades younger, and all Bellatrix was to Ginny was a whisper in the night and a face in the newspaper, detailing captured Death Eaters.)

A hand reached out and gently helped him into a sitting position. “You gave us quite the fright.” His mum told him. “And Fred and George – they’ve been spoken to about it. They say they’re sorry.”

Ron remembers this; years ago, not long after his Uncle’s funeral, Fred and George had played some prank or another, that ended with Ron falling out of a tree, and being saved by a combination of his mother, his father, and accidental magic.

She smiled warmly at him, radiating _home_ and _safety._ When she pulled him into a hug, he didn’t resist – because, well. Even if he seems to be dealing, he _did_ die, and he’s seen family and friends die, and now he’s no longer dead, that’s weighing down on him strongly.

(He was so much smaller than he remembered; it was a strange feeling.)

He didn’t realise he’d been silently crying until his mum wiped his tears away. She looked at him, sadly. “That must have been scary for you, musn’t it?” She asked.

The world bled to greyscale, and Ron looked around wildly.

He noticed a small menu below his mother’s face, a list of options of what to say.

“Pause.” He said, and the menu was replaced by the main menu screen.

“Help; Dialogue.”

_Dialogue choices. Throughout the game, you will be presented with conversation. Currently, dialogue is set as unrealistic; in that you can only talk to one person at a time, and have a list of premade choices. You can turn this off, and have it realistic, or on a roll; using your charisma level. Realistic will allow Charisma checks for Persuasion, Intimidate, Lie, Convince, Argue, Put Down, Demand, and more._

_Do you want to change Dialogue Method?_

Ron nodded, “Yes”, because that was far too weird.

He’d like to actually talk to people, you know?

_Understood. Realistic, or Charisma Check?_

“Realistic” He demanded.

_Realistic Dialogue chosen. Have fun!_

All menus closed, and his mother seemed to be waiting patiently for his response.

“A little.” He said. “I mean, I almost – you know.” His mother patted him on the head. “The key word there is ‘almost’, dear. You’ll be fine now; just rest for me, would you Ronnie?”

Mentally, he grimaced at the childhood nick-name, but outwardly, he nodded, smiling slightly. “Sure, mum.”

_Ignored discomfort at ‘Childhood Nick-name’_

_‘The Twins’ are now 1% more likely to use this, but 2% less likely to call you ‘Ickle Ronnie-kins’. Choose your poison, eh?_

Ron blinked in surprise. _Uh… alright?_

An alert blocked his view. In the background, he noticed his mum leave the room, and realised that it would be best to pause before dealing with anything – the greyscale world stopped time from passing, Ron believed.

_So, you have a title, eh? C_

_Certain people will call you certain things; those are personal titles, or Relationship Names; Such as, on opposing ends of the spectrum, [Lavender Brown] would call you ‘Won-Won’, and [Draco Malfoy] would call you ‘Weasel.’, on occasions when not insulting you with other less-than-flattering names._

_Depending on mood, Relationship Names may vary; Mrs. Weasley may call you ‘Ronnie’ when worried, but ‘Ron Bilius Weasley!’ when angry._

_Normal Titles, are ones you gain throughout play, based on Achievements, Quests, Skills, Abilities, etc. They are gained through others knowing you have done these things. For example, [Harry Potter] is ‘The-Boy-Who-Lived’, for his survival of the Killing Curse at a young age._

_You don’t currently have titles other than ‘The Player’, for the fact you are playing the game, and ‘Ronnie’, from your family, and ‘Ickle Ronnie-kins’ from the Twins, Fred and George._

_You cannot currently swap out titles. You cannot currently swap out trophies. You cannot currently swap out boasts. When you have an Inventory (Currently; your wardrobe, not secure and low-level; too low level for the previously mentioned things) of the correct level, you may change them._

Ron nodded, again, and closed down the Alert just in time for his brothers to enter.

George came first, and then…

Fred.

(Ron didn’t look at the one who’d died; but then they were identical so looking at either hurt.)

The twins took his silence and avoidance as, well, silent treatment, and perched on available things to perch on.

“We’re – ah – sorry, Ronnie-kins.” George said. “Yeah. Sorry, Ron.” Fred added.

_Bloody hell, how am I supposed to pretend to be mad at them when this happened years ago, and one of them is dead in my past life?_

Ron shook his head. “Uh. Alright.”

The two looked surprised, and they should do, because that probably wasn’t what they were expecting.

Ron continued. “S’not the first time anyway.”

_Reminder – Success!_

_Given twins; ‘guilt of past actions’ for: 5 hours.*_

_*Lacking because of an under-developed sense of empathy. That is because of age._

The twelve year olds winced, simultaneously.

“Mum – uh.” Fred started, haltingly. George continued for him. “She sat us down about that too.” He told Ron. “Said – said we needed to make it up. Since we can’t fix the – spiders, thing, or the – the broken arm,” They glanced at each other. Fred continued. “We figured we could – show you some tricks. You know? Stuff – useful stuff for your first year. Simple spells, and all that.” “Stuff that’d have been mighty useful to know when we were firstees.” George chimed in.

The world turned to greyscale, and the Twins were highlighted in a white glow.

An alert popped up in front of him.

_Due to prior events, the twins have offered you Firstees’ Street Smarts; the first class of the game! In it, you’ll learn some handy knowledge about the school, such as secret passages, which portraits are helpful and which aren’t, you’ll gain some neat spells such as ‘point me’, ‘lumos’ and ‘nox’, ‘finite’, ‘finite incantatum’ and, of course (it is the twins, after all) some prank spells and creative, but mostly useless spells. If you gain a high enough RS – relationship status – with them, (In this case ‘Worthy Brother O’ Theirs’) they may, with a good Charisma roll, let you in on the secrets of the map._

_What map, you ask? Well, you’ll find out, won’t you?_

_This class is the first class, and so therefore isn’t able to be declined._

_Just say yes._

“Yes.” Ron said with both finality, and wariness; how would the twins teach him anyway? He wasn’t looking to be a test subject, no way.

“Great!” Fred and George said happily. “That’ll get mum off our backs.” Fred added. “You’ll need a wand though…” George pointed out. Fred seemed to deliberate, for a moment, before nodding and turning to Ron. “Say, how about a test? Your first one, mind, and it’s an easy one at that. Find Charlie’s first wand, keep Charlie’s wand, and then hide Charlie’s wand where we won’t find it. How does that sound, Brother o’ mine?”

_Quest gained!_

_The Wand Thief._

_The twins have tasked you with finding, and ‘borrowing’ Charlie’s wand. Can you do it? Or will you fail?_

_This quest has extra rewards. If you finish in the time limit, you will gain RS with ‘Fred’ and ‘George’ ‘Weasley’, and 10 EXP!_

_Do you accept, or do you wish to do this without the extra pressure?_

Ron was relieved, honestly. See, he knew exactly where Charlie’s old wand was kept – and, thankfully, knew where to hide it.

“I accept the extra challenge” Ron replied.

_Quest Accepted. Quest Journal unlocked! Class Schedule unlocked! Job List unlocked!_

_There are three ways you can access these. From your base, there will be a book that holds them; from your Portable Inventory [currently lvl 1; muggle pockets] or from the main menu. The main menu one is locked during Story Mode – after accessing the Hogwarts instance. There are three instances prior; The Burrow, Diagon Alley and Kings Cross Station. You may spend as much time as you wish in those areas; that is the tutorial. When you move to Hogwarts, that is the end of your tutorial._

Ron nodded. _The way it tells me this stuff seems random, but I’ll take it._

The alert closed.

The world bled back to colour and the twins gained shared evil grins.

“You have 24 hours; starting now, little brother.” Fred told him. “But rest first; after all, if mum catches you out of bed, you’re done for.”

Ron grimaced. Talk about dropping him in the deep end!

The twins left the room. _‘Pause’,_ Ron thought, and grinned to himself when the world bled to grey and time stopped around him. “Brilliant.”

_Least I don’t have to look crazy whenever I call up a menu, eh?_ Ron thought to himself, chuckling. _Bloody useful, that._

Ron blinked, as this was the first time he’d gotten a proper look at the in-game main menu. There were a few more options; including the options menu, character sheet, inventory, save, load, and, ominously enough, quit.

Grimacing, Ron ignored ‘quit’, and figured he didn’t need to look in options, or load, but figured a save would be a good idea. “Save” He called out.

_Game saved in slot one;_

_Ron Weasley; The Burrow. Tutorial. Lvl. 0._

Ron nodded, then closed that menu.

Dismissing the main menu, Ron got up and stretched, then looked around his room.

It looked pretty much the same as always; which was a little embarrassing that he’d never changed his childhood room, even when he was a teenager.

Shrugging, Ron riffled through his stuff to see if he could find anything useful.

_Looting Mode; Activated._

_When this is activated, containers containing valuables, or quest items, glow gold. Items of note that are not in containers glow silver. Dangerous items glow bronze, and quest items glow platinum. Good luck seeing the difference._

_Simply Magic items glow purple, and Muggle items glow orange._

_Good? Good._

The message dissipated when he’d just about finished reading it. Before he could become annoyed, he looked around and was surprised at the amount of gold and silver in his room.

Checking through the gold containers first, he found some things he knew he didn’t own.

_+14 knuts!_

_+2 sickles!_

_+3 knuts!_

_+4 galleons!_

Incredibly surprised at the last one, he noticed the messages appearing in the top left of his vision.

_Luck roll granted! Boost to loot gained!_

_Luck roll granted! Boost to loot gained!_

_Luck roll failed! Boost to loot declined!_

_Luck roll granted! Major Boost to loot granted!_

Ron grinned. _This is bloody brilliant! I’m certainly going to take advantage of this!_

Ron felt almost giddy, before calming down. “Well.” He mused to himself. “So long as it’s not stealing.”

(It’s not like there’d be many containers he can just take from like this. But to start of a fair few gallons richer than before? Not bad, not bad at all.)

Ron went back to looting. He didn’t gain much more aside from money, but that was more than he’d had before so Ron was happy enough.

Raiding his closet netted him ‘equipment’. Ron opened his inventory.

_Inventory._

_In your inventory, is where you will find the items you are carrying, and what you have equipped. Currently, you have two slots – one for the pocket in your robe, the other the pocket in your trousers. Different items gain you inventory slots – from basic muggle pockets, all the way to Hermione’s Experimental Bead Purse; which has an infinite amount of space._

_Currently carrying ½ slots;_

_Wizarding Currency; 6 galleons, 3 sickles, and 15 knuts._

_None._

_Currently equipped:_

_Sleeping Robe – Wizards dress weirdly, don’t they? +10 to HP per hour slept. +1 to carrying capacity._

_Sleeping Trousers – Why do these have a pocket? Christ, I’ll never get you people. +1 to carrying capacity._

_Found in Room:_

_Hand-me-down robe – bit short around the ankles, bit tight around the waist. Fraying at the seams. -1 to Att. (if above age = 14), -1 to Chr. +2 carrying capacity._

_Ratty trainers – these have been dragged through the mud one too many times for a reparo to fix them easy. -4% to walking/running speed, removes sprint._

_Normal trousers – the only good pair you own. No bonuses._

Ron grimaced, and put them on. He noticed the timer in the top right go down by a few minutes.

_As in all Strategy games, actions and choices take turns. In this case ‘turns’ are ‘time’. During battle, that is different; but we’re not there quite yet, Mr. Weasley._

Ron sighed.

Finally ready, Ron went to exit his room.

_Do you want to leave the Base and start the day?_

_[you have; 1 quest; 1 class (unavailable). If you’re caught; you will be sent back to base, and loose an hour. Ready?]_

Ron took a deep breath. “Ready.”

_Good._

The door opened, and his eyes were hit with a blinding, bright light.


	2. A Level Up and a Quidditch Challenge.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuff happens. Read to find out!  
> hah, um - levelling, progressing in quest, and some other stuff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Io!   
> Been a long while, hasn't it? Finally got some inspiration and enough time to write this shit.  
> also keeping track of Ron's stats is crazy silliness, so I might make this part of a series and just put up the stats sheet so you guys can join in on the head scratching confusion if you want.

_Previously…_

_Would you like to start the game?_

“Yeah. Yes.” Ron says, the Alert going at ‘yes’.

_Would you like to do the tutorial? That will be the first ten years of your life._

Ron grimaces.

_You may shorten it; and have the year from after your Uncle Bilius’ funeral to when you turn eleven. Is this preferable?_

Ron was still grimacing at the reminder, but nodded his acceptance.

_Short Tutorial; Easy Mode; Strategy/RPG; Custom Character._

_Enter Player’s Name:_

Ron blinked, then spoke, hesitantly (He’d always thought ‘Ronald’ never suited him. At least he could change that now.)

“Ron Bilius Weasley?”

The alert changed.

_Is ‘Ron Bilius Weasley’ Correct?_

“Yes.”

_Then The game shall start, in five, four, three, two…_

_One._

Ron lurched forwards, pulled through the door by some unseen force, and felt himself falling, falling through the endless void.

He landed, there was a sickening _crack!_ And all went black.

_Now…_

Ron heard the explosions from his brothers’ room, his little sisters shrill voice ( _bloody hell, she’d been high pitched back then)_ calling out, the pots and pans clanking around in their endless cleaning cycle in the sink.

He opened his eyes, and the sounds left.

_Weird._

Ron looked around the dark hallway, the shadows reaching out of the corners and the old, less than structurally sound building creaking and groaning with age.

He heard the sounds of the ghoul, and _what the fuck, why is my house –_

Before he could finish that thought, another alert blocked his vision.

 _Pause,_ he thought, and the world bled to greyscale. Ron read the message.

_Tutorial 1: Stealth._

_Because of your start as a [Modified] [Ronald Weasley], your first mission – and you have to accept it – is a stealth one. Lucky you._

_Fortunately, this ‘game’ is set on Easy, and therefore realistic stealth is off._

_Let’s go bird’ s-eye for a mo’._

The alert disappeared from view, and Ron felt the sickening sense of being shot up into the air sans broomstick, or the ability to be a bird animagus. Ron then looked down, and saw himself. _Bloody hell!_ He balked, and before he could do much of anything else another alert blocked his vision.

_Right. So, for now, the game is going to pilot your avatar, just to show you how stealth is done. Don’t worry, this only happens on the first of each tutorial._

_‘Well, that’s a relief.’_ Ron thought, glaring at the alert.

_Sorry. Anyway, let’s go._

And the alert disappeared. Ron was startled when a disembodied voice started speaking. It seemed female one second, male the next. Then an amalgamation a moment later.

 _“ **THIS IS JUST to disguise** who I am.” _ The voice spoke. **_“Shall WE GET_** _on with it?”_

Ron winced at the volume, and replied “Yeah – uh, yes.”

 _“Sorry. **We’ll try to be quieter NEXT TIME.”**_  The view panned down, and Ron felt his stomach lurch unpleasantly. It was a weird thing, he decided, looking down at his body being piloted by someone else.

**_“Now, [Ron Weasley], do you see the map?”_ **

Ron nodded; because he did, sort of, get what they meant.

The route he was supposed to take was indeed the one he was going to take anyway – it’s not like there are multiple ways around his house; the twins would have found them by now. He looks at the route; down the stairs, across the corridor. That bit didn’t seem _so_ hard, Ron thought, and then he saw his mum, guarding the doorway like some posted auror. He frowned.

 _“There are obstacles.”_ The voice told him. _“ **Your mother is the first guard in the game. During bedtime hours, she will be guarding the door to the living room; and therefore the kitchen and the front door; or the exit, as I PREFER.”**_ Ron winced at the volume again, before nodding. _Alright. Not too difficult._

 _“You see that red circle, yellow cone, and the green area on the ground?”_ The voice asked.

Ron nodded. Around his mother, about a meter in diameter was a red circle. From his mother’s eyes came down a yellow cone; he could maybe fit under the first part if it weren’t for the red circle. There was a red circle as the base of the cone, and a small area around where it was turned yellow. The rest of the floor was green, aside from some patches of yellow and a red one where he knows for certain there was a creaky floorboard.

_“The red is her contact area. She will instantly detect within the red. Yellow is her, what we like to call, ‘huh?’ zone, which will put her into alert but not signify her of your position. Green is free roaming area; where she will not detect you. Avoid red, yellow. Be in green. Not to hard **TO GRASP NOW IS IT?”**_

Ron grimaced, and nodded, now used to their strange voice patterns.

He felt like his first time apparating as he was slammed back into his body, and immediately dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

An alert blocked his view.

_Ooops. Sorry._

Ron scowled and waved it off. The parchment dissipated, and he looked around.

_Mission starts in three, two, one…_

Ron blinked, and the floor was green. It looked as it had from above, but with the new perspective he had to assess his surroundings again.

The floor in front was entirely green, and experimentally, he stepped forwards.

Nothing happened.

He looked down the corridor and saw his mum, who was looking straight in his direction.

Panicking and not really thinking, Ron dropped into a crouch and hid behind the corridor’s first side table, pressing his back into the wood.

 _Bloody hell._ He thought. Then remembered, _if this were realistic, I’d’ve been a goner for sure._

_Since it isn’t though…_

Ron peaked his head around the side of the cabinet table thing ( _whatever they’re called, it’s a bloody useful thing)_ and stared down the hallway to his mum.

_Sneak mode activated._

Ron blinked at the text alert in the top, left hand corner of his vision

 _Oh._ Ron thought, belatedly. _That actually makes some kind of sense._

With a sudden realisation, Ron paused the game and brought up his character sheet.

_Character [Ron Weasley] Stats and Status Effects._

_Status Effects: Unable to sprint; shoes._

_Character Mode: Sneaking_

_Stats:_

_Str: 5_

_Int: 5_

_Chr: 5_

_End: 6_

_Vit: 6_

_Wiz: 6_

_Lck: 8_

_HP: 250_

_MP: 250_

_Because of [Easy] difficulty, Dex, Per (DEXterity, PERcePtion) are locked until instance [Hogwarts] to make your grinding easier._

_Strength is the parent of Vit, and Dex. Wiz/Int/Lck, are the parents of Per._

_For now, the locked stat rolls will be governed by their parent Stat._

_Once they are unlocked, the stats will reflect that of the parent stat, and the specific skills you have developed, ex. Levelling stealth will help with dex/lck., whereas block will help Str, and doing, e.g., Cardio exercises will help Vit. And vice versa; higher stats better skills, higher skills gains better stats._

_Basically – grind the shit out of your stats and skills; get result._

_Simples?_

Ron looked questioningly at the new text.

An alert blocked his view.

_Sorry. Forgot to tell you earlier._

With a sigh and a roll of his eyes (which he may or may not have picked the habit of doing up off of Harry, or Hermione one of the two) he waved aside the alert and tried figuring out how well he could sneak with his current stats.

Abysmally, he decided. His strength, which parented Dexterity, was crap. Five seemed rather low – Ron wasn’t sure, but he figured anything less than ten wasn’t a good amount for his stats to be at. However, luck seemed alright – nothing special, but certainly closer to ten than the others were. He figured it was most likely better than Harry’s had been – though, considering, that’s not saying much.

He must have had negative luck for the shit that happened to him near constantly, Ron figured. Which sucked; he could sympathise. Ron remembered how much trouble he’d managed to get himself into despite his lack of a negative luck stat.

_Sympathy Level up!_

_Sympathy, lvl 4/20._

_Can be dangerous if too high. Also dangerous if too low. Currently too low._

_-85% chance at success on rolls trying to; sympathise, comfort, empathise, and pity._

_+30% chance to be a dick to people in emotional pain. Accidentally, of course._

Ron scowled. _Bugger that._

He wondered how he could level it. Ron figured he could work on it when he wasn’t in ‘stealth’ though – so he pushed it aside so it could wait.

Ron took a deep breath in preparation, and crouch-walked out of his hiding place.

Immediately, he stubbed his toe.

Then, of course, he tripped over nothing.

Slipped on wet flooring.

Stood on three consecutive creaky floorboards.

Faceplanted into the wall.

For that, he lost five hit points.

 _Ow. Bloody hell._ Ron thought.

Still. It could be worse, he considered. If this is what it’s like with eight luck, think about how it could be with less.

_Gained; +1 Wiz for thinking things through, logically._

_Trait revealed; Optimism._

_+2 luck when thinking optimistically._

_-2 luck when thinking pessimistically,_

_And -1 luck when thinking realistically._

_This trait can be bought back for [2] points._

Ron frowned. _I’m not the most optimistic. Bloody hell, this trait is useless._

Ron opened his character sheet, and went to the traits section.

_You are: lvl. 0. 100 exp. Needed for lvl. 1._

_Due to [Easy] difficulty, you gained [five] spendable points. Buying ‘bad’ traits gives points, ‘selling’ them loses points, but ‘selling’ good/neutral gives points._

_Owned Traits;_

_Prewitt Puer [Caused by; Appearance.]_

_Light Is Good, Dark is Bad* [Can’t buy back; requirements not met]_

_Dumbledore’s Wo/Man [Group trait; many others have this, including [Harry Potter] and [The Weasley Family]] [Can’t buy back; requirements not met.]_

_Stubborn [buy back – 6 points.]_

_Natural Flyer [bought trait. Skill aquired; Broom Flying. Animagus Transformation unlocked; birds. Broom Flying starts at_

_lvl. 5/10; shared trait - discovered 'Harry Potter', 'Viktor Krum', and 'Ginevera Weasley' own this.]_

_Goody Gryffindors* [buy back – 5 points]_

_Hufflepuff? Schmufflepuff.* [buy back – 3 points]_

_Quick Learner [bought trait. Skills are aquired: 5% faster, increases by 1% per character Lvl.]_

_Loyal – To A Fault [Locked trait. Caused by; avatar – Ron Weasley.]_

_Self-esteem? Yeah, you have Issues.* [Locked trait, caused by; Family Situation]_

_Jealously Juvenile* [Linked trait. Caused by: Self-Esteem? Yeah, You have Issues]_

_No Tones Of Grey* [Linked trait. Caused by ‘Light is Good, Dark is Bad.’]_

_Chess Master [Locked Trait. Caused by; Avatar – Ron Weasley.]_

_Strategic Mindset [Locked Trait. Caused by; Chess Master.]_

_Emotional Range Of A Teaspoon* [Linked Trait. Caused by; Strategic Mindset, Chess Master. Negated by Emotional understanding]_

_Casanova? Ha!* [Linked Trait. Caused by; Emotional Range Of A teaspoon Negated by Emotional Understanding]_

_Bloody Hell!* [Locked Trait. Caused by; Avatar – Ron Weasley.]_

_Arachnophobia [Locked trait; caused by – Fred & George Weasley. Can overcome, just like any phobia] _

_Emotional Understanding. [bought trait. Negates; Emotional Range of a Teaspoon. +1 to stat; Chr. +1 to skill; Sympathy.]_

_Optimism. [Revealed trait. +2 to stat; Lck when thinking optimistically. -2 to stat; Lck when thinking pessimistically; -1 to stat; Lck when thinking realistically. buy back for [2] points]_

Ron shrugged, and bought _Optimism_ back.

Ron realised, seeing the two new points, that if he could unlock other traits in the same way he did Optimism, he might actually be able to earn some trait points.

_+1 to Int for seeing a loophole, but no effect on Wiz because of no PoA (Plan of Action)_

_Right._ Ron thought. _Plan of Action._

_Strategy skill check passed!_

_Wiz roll succeeded!_

_Int roll failed!_

_Poor plan of action created!_

Ron blinked. _What the-_

_Plan of action executed!_

_Seriously, what the fuck is going on?_ Ron wondered, as many a text alert popped into view in the corner of his vision.

Ron sighed. _This is not going to go well for me._

_Pessimism revealed!_

“For fucks sake.” Ron grumbled quietly to himself.

He then bought back the ‘balanced trait’ for one trait point. It was just as useless as optimism, stat gain/loss wise.

Now he had three trait points. _Now what?_ Ron thought, before sighing and glancing down the corridor.

 _Back to smacking into walls, I guess._ Ron thought, slightly gloomy.

 _Might take me a while, and I’m certain I’ll be caught,_ Ron thought, _but it should improve stealth so it is worth it, sort of._

_Realism revealed!_

Ron scowled, and bought it back for another two points. Now he was at five.

Mentally, he sighed. _At least I’ve got five extra points for level one traits now, eh?_

* * *

Ron glared at the stairs.

He had managed to sneak down the hallway, despite slipping and tripping and smacking his face into objects, but the stairs were a veritable landmine of notice spots.

The stairs were only partly green, but mostly yellow and a fair amount of red.

Ron groaned mentally to himself. _Fuck this._ He thought.

Ron snuck forward two steps, and saw a text message in the corner of his eye.

_Stealth skill levelled!_

_Sneak mode upgraded! Less chance to do stupid shit._

_‘Who was that again?’ now active since stealth skill is at lvl 1/25_

Ron paused. He’d forgotten what that trait meant.

_Who Was That Again?*_

_Ability. Description:_

_Either your looks, or your family background decrees that it would take more than a glance to remember your face. Or recognise it._

_Gives; +2 to stealth in restricted areas. -5% chance to be caught doing things that are… untoward. Each level adds +2 and -5%. At level 5 and 10, a new buff is added._

_This Ability can be levelled. You are currently at lvl 1 of 10._

Ah. That was helpful.

Another text alert was there.

_You have a negative buff of -2 to stealth due to [build]._

Ron grimaced. That was unhelpful, but at least it only negated the buff of +2 stealth, rather than put it in the negatives.

But now Ron realised he could level his stealth skills simply by slowly crouch walking around this hallway, until it was at least good enough so that he wasn’t tripping up every few steps.

And so, Ron did.

* * *

 

_Bloody hell._

Ron wiped imaginary sweat from his forehead, tired yet not after an unknown amount of time of ‘grinding’ his stealth skill.

It was at level four, or so the text alerts told him, and Ron was successfully wandering around the hallway without tripping up.

There was still the occasional creaky floorboard, but that was it.

Ron turned around, and determined, stealthed over to the stairs, and began his descent.

Miraculously, it worked.

_Ding ding! Stealth skill levelled to 5 because of continuous practice and navigation of a precarious staircase!_

_Buff acquired!_

_Due to practice in an old-ish, creaky and populated building, stealth in other such areas is a little easier – a buff of +1!_

Ron shrugged. He’d take it.

Once Ron had gotten to the landing, he assessed the area.

Floor was more yellow than green, annoyingly, and there was a fair amount of red.

However, Ron could see a clear path through the green. He figured since yellow put the person in alert, it would give him some time to get out and find a green hiding spot, or something.

_No stat gain, but then I figured easy things like that are more common sense than wisdom._

Ron sighed, since apparently his mum was deaf or something – considering the fact she hadn’t heard him crashing about earlier - then got on with the sneaking.

Ron progressed slowly through the green, being careful to avoid the area’s his mother’s sight cone would hit, as he made his way through the room.

He came to a halt at a stretch of yellow and red, with no green. However, just beyond it, was a patch of green.

 _Wait._ Ron thought. _No way._

And, fingers crossed, Ron jumped.

And landed in the green. His mum was none the wiser.

 _That’s fucking broken._ Ron thought gleefully.

_There are objects and shit I can stand on that have no green, yellow or red, and I can jump between green sections. This is seriously bad game design._

And so he proceeded to do so, staying in sneak mode as he stealth-jumped his way to the door.

It took much less time to get there than the mission would have allowed otherwise.

Ron saw a message in the top corner, but dismissed it for now. He had a mother to bypass.

Ron frowned. _How am I supposed to do that?_

_Looting mode Activated._

He looked around, and spotted a glowing box.

Ron frowned, and tried to remember the rules for glowing things.

  _When looting mode is activated, containers containing valuables, or quest items, glow gold. Items of note that are not in containers glow silver. Dangerous items glow bronze, and quest items glow platinum. Good luck seeing the difference._

_Simply Magic items glow purple, and Muggle items glow orange._

Ron shrugged, and stealthed over to the container, and had a look inside.

It was mostly orange glowing muggle junk; Ron figured this was a box of his dad’s stuff. Despite this, and a slight feeling of guilt, Ron grabbed one of the random assorted objects, and turned around.

Taking a breath, Ron threw the thing, and it landed a fair bit away.

Not as far as he’d wanted, and not exactly _where_ he’d wanted, but Ron supposed it would do.

_Strength roll succeeded!_

_Int/Wiz/Lck roll barely succeeded!_

Ron grumbled. His Int score was really pulling him down.

Ron climbed on top of the box, and crouched there. When his mum turned around, he held his breath – but as suspected, though the cone passed over him, it didn’t register as her spotting him, and so his mum wandered over to the object.

Quick as he could, Ron hurried over to the door and slipped in, then closed it behind him.

_Game auto-saved._

Ron remembered he could save it manually, and berated himself for forgetting. He should do that before most decisions, he thinks – because what if something goes wrong?

_PoA activated!_

_Game auto-save function will now happen before every important (or less so­­) decision or action._

_Huh._ Ron thought. _Handy._

In the room, Ron stood up, and saw the message

_Sneak mode deactivated._

Having read this, Ron looked around.

There was many random purple and orange objects lying around, and a few random containers; gold and one platinum. There were also a few silver things.

The platinum one, of course, was the one where Mrs. Weasley kept the wands – out of reach of the children, and safe in their box, since the kids can’t do magic.

Or so she thought. Ron grinned, and checked how to activate his controllable magic.

_Welcome to the Guide!_

_Here we have a few tips. You have requested a tutorial on how to control your accidental magic._

_It’s simple, really. Much easier than that wand stuff you wizards are so proud of. Though only a few can do this; you’re a luck bastard!_

_All you need to do, is force your will onto something._

_For example – want a lock, unlocked? There’s a few ways around this._

_Believe with all your heart the box or door or what have you is in no way locked against your access, and bada-bing bada-boom, it won’t be!_

_Another is to force it open with brute magical strength; either enhance those muscles and smash it, or drain some mana into it to break the spell, or force the muggle lock open!_

_Finally, you can always use a finer touch, and use your magic to condense a small amount of air into a thin lock pick like object, and open it that way!_

_Each of these has its own level of difficulty, unlocks certain branches of controllable accidental magic, and will help you on your way to wandless and wordless casting!_

_For now, though, you’ll have to point at objects and mutter things. Sorry, but you’re still just a kid, man. You ain’t OP yet._

_But that’s all for this tutorial! Figure all the rest of this shit out yourself, you’ve got a head on your shoulders, don’t you?_

Ron sighed. _Helpful as ever,_ he thought, drily.

Ron looked over his options.

_It looks as if mum locked it with magic – since we don’t have our wands, and therefore can’t unlock the magical lock as we could a muggle one._

Ron sighed. This limited his options.

_So. There’s the belief one, which… I’m not so sure on, then there’s the brute magic one – but since my mum is currently way more powerful than me that’s probably bust… the lock pick one sounds cool but useless without that skill and a lack of practice controlling elements… which should not be possible unless you’re, what, as powerful as Dumbledore? So – yeah, that’s out of the question for now._

_Which leaves belief. Bugger._

Ron huffed, and feeling slightly ridiculous, placed his hand on the container.

_Game auto-saved._

_Oh. Right._ Yeah, Ron figured this would count for that failsafe.

But he was distracted. Ron breathed, closed his eyes and concentrated.

Muttering aloud _“There’s no lock on this. It’s openable. I’m not unable to open this container. I can take things out without any problems,”_ And so on.

After a while – maybe it was minutes, maybe hours – Ron finally saw a new message, aside from _Spellcasting skill check failed! Controllable Magic Ability not activated!_

Now, of course, he saw

_Spellcasting skill levelled to 5/30! Controllable magic now always activated, and generally successful!_

_Though not always **accurate** to what you asked for._

Ron grinned. This was much better.

Again, he closed his eyes. And with all of his focus, all of his belief, he thought

_This. Is. Open._

And it was. Ron stared as the lid opened of its own accord, and the wands inside stared up at him, glowing.

Some were simply purple, though some were silver and one –

One was platinum.

This wand had scratches and dents and groves, and the tip was broken off so much so that you could see the unicorn hair poking through the top.

Ron picked it up.

_Charlie’s old wand added._

_Error. Inventory full. You must carry this in hand, put it down, or find more portable inventory space._

Ron sighed. That was going to get annoying.

_Quest updated!_

_The Wand Thief._

_Congrats! You sneaky bastard. Now you’ve got the wand, where to put it?_

_You have twelve hours left._

Ron blinked, then opened the main menu.

And there it was, clear as day – the analogue clock stating he had twelve hours of the twenty-four left, in which to hide the wand where the twins won’t find it.

 _Well._ Ron thought. _That’s odd._

But then, it really wasn’t, he realised. The game had told him earlier that all actions take a turn – or in his case, minutes. So it makes sense, even if it doesn’t look like time has passed, his ‘turns’ have.

 _Alright._ He thought. _Now to hide this thing._

Ron frowned. He looked at the front door, slowly walked over, and opened it.

_Do you want to move onto the next area, and progress in the quest?_

Ron paused, and thought.

Then promptly realised something.

_Ah. Right._

He hadn’t looked around for the loot in this room.

And so he did, gaining another six galleons and five sickles worth of money, and a better pair of shoes that let him sprint.

Which was good, because Ron remembered that being _highly_ necessary in his previous life.

With that out of the way, Ron went back to the door, and said “Yes”.

He opened it, and his vision went white.

* * *

 

The outside world was a little chilly, the sun still rising on the horizon.

 _Dawn, then._ Ron thought. _Hope mum isn’t out yet._

Luckily, she wasn’t. Neither were the twins, which was a blessing. Everyone must still be sleeping, Ron figured.

He hurried on over to the broom shed. Quickly, he did the same as he had done earlier to open the wand cabinet to the door, and it swung wide, nearly whacking him in the nose.

Luckily, he passed the luck roll, and found himself to be standing just far enough out of it’s reach.

Only just, mind you.

Blinking rapidly, Ron went inside the small shed, and grabbed one of the brooms. Then he went outside the back of it, and placed the broom on the ground.

“Up.” He commanded, quietly, fully expecting it to either whack him in the face as brooms had always tended to do, or roll over uselessly.

It did neither.

Just as Harry’s had, that first flying lesson, the broom shot up into his hand before he’d even finished the word.

Ron grinned at this. _Natural flyer was a brilliant choice, go figure._

Ron mounted the broom and flew, and it was far easier and _far_ more enjoyable than it had been in his previous life; he didn’t even feel slightly uncomfortable.

Like Natural Flyer suggests, it felt _natural._

Ron did a few loops, just for fun, felt the wind rush past and it was so, so _easy._

Things except chess had never really been easy, for him. It was almost exciting, but Ron remembered he had work to do.

Ron flew the broom up to the roof, and dropped off of it, landing easily on his feet, holding onto the broomstick with one hand.

Kneeling down, Ron placed the wand in the gap between the fairly useless chimney ( _Really, we’re magic, what need do we have of one of those things?)_ and the lip of the roof. Since that part was slightly sunken, hidden and had walls around it, Ron thought it to be a fairly good place to put the wand.

If you’re wondering, Ron had gotten himself stuck up here once when he was younger, in this life – due to accidentally apparating up to the roof due to one of the terrifying spider incidents that had happened.

The twins stopped thinking his phobia was funny, after that, Ron remembered. They never really had in his last life.

 Ron shook this off, because then wasn’t really the time for that, and flew back down. He was surprised, but not really, to see Ginny at the shed.

He landed and dropped off, into a crouch, which activated sneak mode. Since he landed in a green area, she didn’t detect him.

 _Stupid system._ Ron grinned mentally. _Ripe for abuse, this is._

Ron stood up, and wandered over.

Ginny turned around, startled.

“Ron!” She blurted, then covered her mouth.

“What’re you doing here?” Ginny hissed, a little angry.

 _Okay,_ quite angry, Ron amended. But that was Ginny for you.

Ron chucked her the broom, and she caught it, a little clumsy but not coming close to dropping it.

“Same as you.” He said instead, and she frowned at him suspiciously. Ron placed his hands in his pockets and tried to look like he hadn’t just hidden the wand he’d borrowed on the roof.

Ginny relaxed.

_Lying skill gained! Level 1/10._

Ron frowned, but ignored the message. He’d look at that later.

Her eyes glinted. “You up for a challenge, Ronnie?” Ginny inquired.

It was Ron’s turn to tense.

“What kind?” He asked, a bit wary.

“See if you can block more goals than I can score.” She said.

“Chaser on keeper.”

Ron looked on, nonplussed. “And what do I get?”

“If you win,” She grinned. “I can teach you a few things, like the bat bogey hex Bill gave me, and a few quidditch moves.”

There was a pause, and Ron realised the game wanted him to respond.

“And if you win, Ginny?”

Her grin grew a little bit more vicious.

“I tell mum that you ruined my new dress, and it wasn’t me on accident.”

Ron winced, mentally. One of the fake memories flew to mind – of him accidentally ruining his sister’s birthday present dress. Ginny had actually been happy, not wanting to have anything to do with the frilly mess, but she’d said it was fine, she could just hold it as blackmail.

Outwardly, Ron acquiesced to her challenge.

“Alright.” Ron said. “deal.”

Ginny smiled. “Glad to do business, Ron. Come on!” The ten-year-old jogged over to the fields, and called back “I’ll be in the quidditch clearing.”

_Quest Gained! Quest gain is currently in realistic mode, due to Realistic Dialogue. Sort of realistic, anyway._

_Quest Gained: A Little Blackmail Never Killed Nobody._

_Your sister has blackmailed you into playing a little game of chaser on keeper; you being the keeper. Stop more goals than she can score, and you’ll win another class! This one is one-time use and will happen directly after the match, in cutscene._

Ron sighed, and grabbed the broomstick that was in best shape out of the lot, before running after his younger sister.

* * *

 

Ron entered their makeshift quidditch pitch, which had muggle repellent wards and a fair few other bits and bobs to make sure the muggles don’t pay attention to the children flying on dead bits of tree.

“You ready?” Ginny called out from her perch on George’s Cleansweep seven (it was the one in the best condition; since Fred and George are on the Gryffindor quidditch team. Fred’s was second best).

“Give me a second.” Ron grumbled, before mounting and flying up to the makeshift – and very certainly only stable because of magic – goalposts.

“Ready.” Ron said.

Ginny grinned. “One prodigy against another, yeah?”

The game started.

Ginny flew left, and yet Ron knew she was fainting, so pretended to follow yet switched when she did and caught the Quaffle easily – though his arm strained slightly and Ron cursed his low Str. Stat.

_Quaffle caught successfully! Timer moves forward two minutes. Score, 1-0 to Ron._

 Ron tossed the ball back to his sister.

“Thanks!” She called, then pirouetted the broom as a distraction before sharply flying to the left and throwing it to the bottom of the lower left goal.

Ron was a little too slow on the uptake, and caught it just as it passed through.

_Quaffle catch fail! Timer moves forward two minutes. 1 all._

Ron understood the showing off she was doing, and in turn used the end of his broom to hit the ball in her direction – he’d remembered seeing a few keepers do this once, including Wood, and had wanted to try it, but was never good enough at flying to accomplish the move.

He was now, though – and his sister had to fly after it just a little to catch it.

Ginny circled the broom back around.

“Nice one.” She said, tossing the ball between her hands.

_Theatrics skill unlocked! Theatrics at lvl 1/15._

_Theatrics is your dramatic-ness. How showy you are, and can be. Parents intimidation, and other showy things – like acting, and has a little influence in the bullshitting side of lying._

Ron paused mentally. That actually sounded kind of useful.

Ginny suddenly dived her broom, then flew at a diagonal. This throw Ron easily just kicked away from the goal.

Ginny caught it on the rebound, and flew to hover directly in front of him.

“Yeah, that was pretty bad.” She sighed.

_Quaffle successfully caught! Or, well – kicked, more like. Score 2-1 to Ron._

_Timer goes down two minutes. Four left._

_Ten-minute match, then._ Ron deduced.

Ginny tried for another feint, but Ron again predicted and caught it before it went in the centre goal.

_Quaffle Catch Succeeded! Timer goes down, two minutes left. 3-1, Ron._

Ron tossed it between his hands before throwing it back to Ginny, who caught it and immediately threw it to one of the goals.

It missed.

_Quaffle unneeded to be caught. No score change, timer goes down one minute._

Ron realised the two-minute thing was both their turns. One minute for each turn. That didn’t really make much sense, since each ‘turn’ took way less than a minute, but it’s the game, he guesses.

Ron dropped down, scooped the ball up and flew back to the goal, through the large middle one.

He tossed the ball back to Ginny, one-handed, and waited for her response.

_Timer goes down one minute. Game ends._

_Oh._ Ron thought, belatedly. _Right._

Ginny sighs.

“Times up,” She said, and Ron figured she only knew because the game said she did.

“Let’s teach you that spell, eh?”

* * *

 

_New spell gained!_

_Bat Bogey Hex – turns the, you guessed it – snot of your enemies into bats. Surprisingly effective._

_Requires a wand._

_New Skill gained!_

_Lock-picking, lvl 3/15 – taught by novice._

_The ability to… discretely open locks, sans magic and sans keys._

_And sans legality, but who cares? Not you, obviously._

_Blackmailing skill unlocked! No level yet, but at least you know it’s a thing now, eh?_

_Bullshitting branch of Lying Skill unlocked! This is the ability to say complete and utter rubbish and have others believe you. The more ridiculous you are capable of, the quicker you level, and thus the easier it is!_

Ron shrugged. This was all pretty fine – the hex was really what mattered out of all of that. He remembered how useful it had been to Ginny… and how no-one else had ever used it. Which was odd, now that he thinks about it – but it’s not like he can change his past.

Though this is technically the past. And he can change _this_ future. Though not too much. Ron knows messing with time is dangerous business.

(That sort of understanding comes with brains latching onto you and not letting go. They had a _lot_ of information, and he doesn’t remember any of it. Just… feelings. Incredibly specific understandings.)

With a sigh, Ron ambled back in the direction of the Burrow.

* * *

 

Before going inside, Ron decided to have a look around.

The Burrow’s surrounding area was pretty much the same as he remembered – but there were some less-than-minor changes, such as a fucking massive wooded area.

Seriously. Ron stared at the forest.

 _Bloody hell, when did that get there?_ He demanded, having nearly jumped out of his skin when he had noticed it.

Curious, and ignoring the Hermione-conscience nagging him for acting like Harry and the not-Hermione what was egging him on, he cautiously made his way over to the treeline.

Ron hesitantly stepped into the woods.

_Game Auto-Saved._

_Welcome to the first Wild Area of your gaming experience! In this small (relatively) section of the woods which you have access to, you will find Creatures and Critters which are scaled to your level! As you are currently Lvl. [0] and therefore pretty useless, they’ll be super easy to defeat._

_Stays pretty much the same until Level five, wherein you’ll get some new enemy types and random boss encounters._

_Human enemies are unlocked in the Wilds after [Year 5] in story instance [Hogwarts] is completed._

Ron blinked, then decided pretty much instantaneously he wasn’t ready for battling anything yet – considering he has no weapon, or anything remotely helpful.

An alert materialised in front of his face.

Ron grimaced, then read it.

_Hey, Player!_

_Sorry about this. But you do have weapons – they’re called your fists and your controllable accidental magic, both of which really need some training. Here’s the best place for that, since because of your start you don’t have any real battle skills trainers just yet._

_So, I recommend fighting some shit._

_Oh, and remember to save! You can die. Forgot to tell you that, hahah… oops._

Ron scowled at the alert. This arsehole was beginning to annoy him rather more than was necessary.

With a sigh, he waved it away, and opened the main menu.

He ‘hit’ save, then the world bled back to full colour.

Ron figures he’ll end up used to that, at some point in the future.

Grumbling, Ron activated looting mode and picked up a sharp rock, with which he marked a tree, so as to find his way back out of the woods when he needs to.

Ron kept the looting mode on, as there wasn’t really anything in sight and he figured it would be useful, and wandered further into the woods.

* * *

 

Ron had not had to ‘fight’ anything yet, per say. Unless you count stomping on slightly over-sized roaches and other things (thank Merlin no spiders) as ‘battling’ creatures.

Ron had stood on many a critter and, since he only got a few exp per ‘defeat’ (as the game called it) he wasn’t really close to levelling.

He had gotten a ‘stomping’ skill. That was something at least.

_Stomping levelled to 2/5!_

Ron scowled down at the bigger than usual cockroach he’d just stomped on.

This was getting dull.

Another alert blocked his view.

_Well, yeah, it’s getting dull dumbass. This is what we call ‘grinding’ – where you wander around, doing the same shit over and over and over again to gain exp, and levels in skills and such things._

_It’s boring. It’s dull. It’s repetitive. Get over yourself, we’ve all had to do the same._

_‘Close.’_ Ron demanded mentally, and the floating parchment dissolved into the air.

And with that, Ron got back to stomping on unsuspecting oversized critters.

* * *

_Stomping levelled to 3/5!_

_Now when you stomp on people’s faces, it’s a guaranteed broken nose!_

Ron shrugged. _It’s something for my efforts, at least._

Having seen another roach – _are these the only thing this game is capable of, Morgana’s sake –_ Ron walked over and stood on it.

_Luck roll major success!_

_Exp gained:10 from Large ‘Roach._

_Level Up!_

Ron blinked at the character sheet that was blocking his view. Grimacing, he commanded it aside and opened the main menu, _then_ brought up his character sheet.

Ron immediately used up the bonus fifty any-stat points and the 100 exp he’d been granted to make his Str. Stat a six, as it was the only five left in his Stats list.

Well. Table, more like.

**_Stats_**

| 

**_Str_**

| 

**_Int_**

| 

**_Wiz_**

| 

**_Chr_**

| 

**_End_**

| 

**_Vit_**

| 

**_Lck_**

| 

**_HP_**

| 

**_MP_**  
  
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---  
  
_Lvl 1_

| 

_6_

| 

_6_

| 

_7_

| 

_6_

| 

_6_

| 

_6_

| 

_8_

| 

_250_

| 

_250_     
  
Ron nodded. Not bad.

Having finally levelled, Ron decided to leave the Wild zone and go back to the Burrow and hand in his quest, the twenty-four hour timer now down to two, as it was.

With a final look around himself, Ron turned and followed the marked trees back to the exit.


	3. Finishing the First Quest.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> some stuff happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha-  
> Io. Been a looooong time, omg sorry guys. Been very busy as of late.  
> I hope you all had a good christmas/whatever holiday you celebrate!

Ron exited the 'Wild area', and wandered back on over to the burrow. 

As he arrived at the main area of their farm (the bit that holds their house and garage) an alert blocked his view:

_Sup player?_

_So, you've two hours left, until Messers Weasley decide to actually come find you, and therefore I think it'd probably be best for you to explore some more._

_Hint. Hint._

_(Eg, have a look around the farm, the garden, the garage, the surrounding area... maybe you'll find some secrets!)_

_(Hint. Fucking Hints man. Look at all this help I'm giving you; you should be honoured.)_

Ron scoffed.  _Bloody hell. What does this guy even think he is? Merlin?_

With a simple thought, the alert dissolved from view - and despite his distate for the Game... overlord?  _Eh. Sounds villain-like. Hmm._

_Name it later._ Ron decided.

Well, as I was saying, despite his distaste for the game-guy, Ron decided to take his advice.

_For not being a stubborn idiot, you now have only a 70% chance not to listen to reason, rather than a 75% chance. Go you, ya stubborn arsehole._

_Wait. What?_ Ron demanded, and a description of his trait; Stubborn, came up:

_Stubborn. You can buy this trait back, it costs six points. It is a balanced trait, as a result of easy difficulty, and so therefore you will not loose points - you will, in fact, gain them. Lucky you._

_Aren't you stuck in your ways? 70% chance to not listen to a word people say, and never take anything negative said about you into account. However, the flip-side is that you won't ever stray from friends unless you choose too, no matter how badly they're depicted in media._

It's not like Ron was about to do that anyway; he has the Loyal - To A Fault trait for a reason. 

Ron bought it back, and nodded decisively at his eleven trait points. That's probably a good thing - having a bunch of extra ones in case a really good yet expensive trait becomes available. 

_Int + 1!_

Ron smiled slightly. That was a good bonus. 

Now he had seven Int, Ron figured he wouldn't fail so much at those int rolls he does more often than he'd originally thought he would.  _Should've thought of that, really._

Shrugging, Ron moved on. 

Since it was closest, Ron decided he'd have a look around his dad's garage - wherein he uses the loophole in his own law to mess around with muggle objects. 

_Bit dangerous, that._ Ron would never forget the ford anglia. That car helped them when they were younger - well. When, in his past life, they'd been twelve. 

_Never saw it after that; but I can't really blame it._ They did, after all, crash the bloody thing. Ron rather thinks them lucky it didn't leave them for dead, because of that.

_Won't do that again, this time._ Ron decided. It had been his idea, after all - and judging by his low int and wiz stats from earlier...

He's surprised that he can even talk, let alone play chess and come up with getting-to-school strategies. 

Ron sighed, and entered the garage; having pondered on all of this on the way there.

His vision bled white - which he was slowly getting used to - and the room (because that's all it is, truly)... glitched into view, before the colours dissolved into existence. 

Shivering slightly, because it's always disturbing when it's plain and easy to see that his new 'life' is actually just some... virtual thing, Ron had a gander at the knick-nacks on show.

Mostly muggle things, and with the looting mode still activated he could see things that were flickering between orange and purple... which probably wasn't a good sign.

Ron stayed away from those, mainly.

But, as he'd been thinking on it earlier - the car caught his eye.

It wasn't bronze, which he figured was a good sign, but it wasn't - uh, sliver or platinum either, though he figured that was mainly because this was way before the ford had become anything more than his dad's weird and mostly useless project. 

Ron couldn't quite help himself, and wandered over to it. 

"Ron?" A voice called out, and he winced before spinning around. His dad was there - and as this was the first time Ron had seen the man (not counting the false memories) since the battle of Hogwarts...

_Bloody hell Ron. Get it together._

Arthur must have taken his son's silence and reluctance to meet his eyes as worry at being caught, as the man chuckled heartily. "It's alright, Ron, nothing to fear. Might I ask my son what he's doing in his old man's workshop?" Ron's dad inquired pleasantly - _and unlike mum_ ,  _he's not trying to make me spill or anything like that._

Ron shrugged. "Just - curious, I suppose." He muttered, and scuffed his shoe on the ground in an awkward manner.

_True enough, I reckon._ Ron figured, and his Dad nodded along as if he agreed with that assessment. 

"Well, feel free to have a look around then." He seemed exited - and Ron remembered that none of them had, in his last life, done anything more than humour his dad's interest in the muggle side of things. "Ask me any questions - and don't worry, fiddle away with whatever catches your eye." The man winked. "I won't tell Molly if you don't." 

Ron's dad ambled off to work on some other kooky muggle-magical fusion thing, and Ron gave a minute shake of his head.

Once his Dad was out of sight, Ron turned back to the car. 

It was in such a better shape than the last time he'd seen it, that the bloody thing brought about a wealth of happier memories.

_No matter how stupid it was, that drive was actually pretty fun._

After a short while, and when they'd realised the drive to fucking  _Scotland_ would take hours, him and Harry had had to figure out how to have some fun - whilst Ron kept driving, since Harry had made a point to poke the fragile lens of his glasses as proof as to why he would most definitely _not_ be driving,  _thanks Ron._

_It was a pretty stupid thing, though._ Ron thought - both in mirth and a kind of bittersweet feeling - the one you get when you look back into your memories, when you delve deep into simpler times.

Ron stared down at the car and patted it on the headlamp.

As he'd expected, the bloody thing flashed the said lamps in response.

_Fucking knew you were alive the whole time._ Ron thought, grouchily. _Could'a helped, you know._

_"I mean it."_ He murmured aloud.  _"Harry nearly died since you let him fall out."_

The car made an unhappy rumbling noise - though thankfully quiet. However, Ron was fairly certain the thing couldn't understand a word he was saying... yet it did near worry him that it could respond to tone correctly.

Ron looked at it suspiciously, and if he didn't know any better the thing was most definitely blinking in an 'who, me?' innocent manner.

Ron gave it a rather childish 'I'm watching you' gesture, before backing away.

It beeped goodbye, and he flipped the thing off.

_It is not chuckling; it is a fucking car._

Ron viciously grabbed the nearest random object and started fiddling with it, as he walked away from the car.

It made a sad noise, and Ron forcefully reminded himself that it was an _inanimate object, do not feel anything about leaving it alone. Since it's a car, it can't be 'alone.'_

An alert blocked his view. Ron scowled at it. Bastard.

He gave  _that_ the middle finger before demanding it to go away, and then decided to actually pay attention to the object he'd picked up.

_Odd thingy-ma-whatzit._

_You don't know what the hell this is. Go take some muggle studies classes, or read a fucking book._

Ron dropped it off to the side haphazardly, as it seemed his dad had done the same with many a discarded item, and approached his dad. 

His dad was fiddling with a computer, and looked up as he heard Ron approach. 

"Ron." He said, smiling, and dropped his screwdriver (which clattered to the floor), yet put down his wand rather gently on the nearest available surface - which happened to be on top of the monitor.

"Did you want something?" He asked. Ron shrugged, still a little uncomfortable talking to a man that looked decades younger than he had the last time Ron had seen him.

"Uh, yeah." Ron muttered. "Just - wanted to know what all this stuff was." Ron glanced around. 

His dad got his attention, by coughing (which,  _bloody hell,_ definitely made Ron jump,  _Merlin's beard.)_ then handed him a book.

"This'll have most of the information you'll need." His dad informed him. "Not sure if it's all accurate... this contraption's apparently a 'kompiter', of some sort."

Ron sighed. Aloud.  _Do we really get all this wrong like that?_

An alert blocked his view and told him in no uncertain terms that  _yes, you do._

Ron waved it away mentally, and took the book.

Not bothering to read the title, he flipped through it - Or would have, if it hadn't been for the fact it only had one page and two voice command options. 

_Would you like to learn the knowledge this book can give you?_

_yes/no._

Ron shrugged, commanded  _'yes'_ and suddenly understood at least the basic concepts of how wizards view muggle things.

Badly. And very, very incorrectly, his Hermione-conscience snapped. The Possibly-Harry one just shrugged. _That's wizards for you, Hermione._

She huffed. Ron rather thinks that he's either going crazy, or he knows his friends too well.

_Hell. There's no such thing as too well._

Not in their lives, anyway.

He handed his dad the book back, and the man didn't question it. "Learnt it?" He asked, and Ron nodded. "I can teach you some other things at a later date" Arthur told Ron. "Until then, you can poke around a bit, or go help your mother - the twins were also looking for you, if I remember correctly."

Ron blinked and looked at the time. His quest was due; apparently, he'd spent the two hours already.

Huh. _Time flies._

Ron nodded. "Uh, yeah. I'll see what the twins want."

"That's a good lad." His dad said cheerfully, before going back to his job.

_It's time to hand in your quest!_

_3, 2, 1..._

Ron expected it when the world went white, this time.

"Ickle-Ronniekins!" Fred - or the one he'd labelled as such, at any rate - stated cheerfully, which did nothing more than gain a grimace and a grunt of annoyed recognition.

"Gee Forge, looks like Ronnie actually managed his task!" George said in a tone... what was probably not mocking, now that Ron thinks about it.

"Where  _did_ you hide it, brother o' ours?" Fred asked. 

Ron resisted the urge to not tell them, and simply said, flatly, "On the roof."

The two blinked; despite the change in memories, it's not like Ron's personality changed... well. More that it's not like Ron's  _stats_ changed; he probably wouldn't have thought of that as a hiding place when his 'backstory' was being generated.

You know. Being at a low int/wiz score and all.

George's lips pulled down at the corners and he nodded - the boy looked at least a little impressed. Fred scowled though; and there was the marker as to who each actually was.

Because contrary to popular opinion, the two aren't actually clones. 

Ron was a little surprised his guess was right, but never mind that.

"Didn't think of that." Fred muttered, and George elbowed him. "Good spot." He grudgingly conceded, then continued. "Go get it and meet us outside our room, we'll teach you the basics."

Ron nodded.

_This will be in cut scene. You will, when prompted, have to respond to what they're saying - so pay attention!_

Ron blinked, and he saw himself go up to the roof, and grab the wand, before flying down, handing the broom over to Ginny, and jogging off at a light pace towards the twins' room.

Once outside it, Ron watched his... 'avatar' be led into the room, and the lesson began.

The whole thing wasn't too interesting - because when the twins said the basics, they meant it... and it was a real shame Ron actually knew all of this - except not really.

_Understanding of Hogwarts at too high a level to be raised._

_Knowledge of passages cannot be taught; already known. Gained a few passwords however._

_Passage from ground floor to seventh unlocked! Password unlocked!_

And so it went. Ron gained a few insights he hadn't had previously, but he knew basically all of this (and more), having been a Hogwarts student for far longer than the twelve to thirteen year old twins have, so far at least. 

It's weird to be older than your older siblings, Ron reflected.  _Bloody hell, if you add all those years up and shit, I'm around - what - twenty-eight? Fuck._

That was a weird thought. Ron moved on, because he definitely didn't  _feel_ twenty eight, so that can't be right.

Maybe the being a game character made him actually be eleven again?

_(Oh, bollocks.)_

That won't exactly be pleasant. Luckily, he's not in control of his body at current; so his reflexive grimace went unnoticed by the twins.

Once the 'lesson' was over, Ron was kicked out, and it was time for tea. 

The whole thing went so much like any of their other dinners had gone, before - well, before Harry, really. Before Hogwarts, and the War. Before all of that - well, Ron hadn't realised quite how light-hearted they'd all been, back then.

It made him feel nostalgic, which made him seem bloody old, but it was true all the same.

The time passed with laughter and conversations, and if Ron ignored the fact they were all eating with the same exact 'animation' this could almost be real.

But he couldn't. It was too... rigid for human movement, he thinks. Too exact for their's, at any rate.

And so teatime passed by, and Ron went upstairs, caught up in the rush and in his older life's childhood memories.

Ron entered his room and was assaulted with the horrifically bright orange -

And smiled. 

Honestly? It was good to be home. Despite the circumstances. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Sing-songs* Sorry that it's mostly filler!?
> 
> Actually no tho, because it's actually necessary. Not all games start out action-packed, truth be told - and this one won't either. Not to say that it won't get there eventually... but Harry potter didn't have many proper fights 'til the later books, so we'll see.  
> It'll come sooner than that tho. Promise.


	4. Wherein Ron Chats With His Dad and Sees Things Perhaps Improve.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are improving, Ron thinks, as he looks at his family. Things are, perhaps, looking up.  
> Let's just hope that's not preemptive, because if it is and it's wrong, bloody hell. Things won't turn out well for anyone.

Ron didn't exactly  _wake up,_ the next day. After he'd practically fallen into bed, having equipped his sleep robes, The room faded out, and after a moment, light faded back in again. 

Ron was, apparently, doing nothing in his bedroom. The clock chimed ten, and Ron felt himself able to move again. 

 _Bloody hell._ He thought.  _Going to be annoying, trying to get used to that._

Ron placed down his comic about the muggle guy (it'd been so long since he'd read one of those... ignoring his false memories) and stood. Ron pilfered his wardrobe again, and found the same things he'd found 'yesterday', except this time there was no money. 

"Figures," Ron muttered.  _Not like we usually leave galleons lying around, after all._

Ron equipped the day robes and the sleep ones dropped to the ground. His 'borrowed' wand was jammed into the lining of his pocket; there was a hole in the seam. 

Ron shrugged, and left the room. The hallway faded into existance, and a notice flickered in front of him. 

Ron scowled at it. 

_Hey, player._

_So, today's your second day! There will be no quests today, probably, so I think it might be best for you to find some classes or jobs, practice your skills etc. You have twenty four hours - lucky that you don't need sleep, eh?_

He huffed and waved aside the message, though at the same time took it's advice. 

Ron decided to go upstairs; despite the ghoul in the attic, he hasn't gone up there in this life yet, and he has to admit curiosity. 

Hesitating at the door, Ron called up the pause menu.  _Save._ He thought, and a message in the top corner of his vision flashed;  _Game saved in [Slot 1]._

Nodding, Ron closed the menu and opened the door. 

* * *

The attic faded into existence, and an alert blocked his view.

_Good find, player!_

_This is the dungeon of [The Burrow]. It being a small-ish instance and all, it has enough space for one, but no more - aside from the randomly generated ones in the wild area. You'll find those eventually, but you'll need practice first - and that's what this is for!_

_Practice Dungeon #1 has been unlocked. There are [???] of this type. Find them all!_

Ron sighed.  _Of bloody course_ there was a dungeon in his Attic. 

Deciding he might as well make use of this, Ron equipped his wand in the right hand weapon slot, and checked his magic skill. 

 _Abysmal,_ he decided. Wandless was actually  _better,_ though that might be from his use of non-accidental magic. Ron was hoping he wouldn't have to chance the underage magic thing, but decided having a  _0_ skill wasn't a good thing in the long run. 

Readying his memories of how to do certain spells, Ron spied a rock (what it was doing in the attic, he has no clue) and cast an experimental  _wingardium,_ and it shakily floated. _Damn,_ Ron really was out of practice.

Ron held his breath, but a few minutes passed and no letter came. Releasing a sigh of relief, Ron dropped the rock and started practicing. 

(He needs at least a little skill - enough to be able to defend himself, at least, from the creatures and critters no doubt stored within the dungeon.)

* * *

Ron saw another large beetle, sighed, and stood on it. 

_Large beetle killed!_

_No loot gained!_

Ron rolled his eyes. He'd hoped that there would be something other than bugs in the Attic, but this dungeon seemed to be incredibly easy.

Far too easy, he thought, as he turned a corner. Ron paled.

A medium sized acromantula was in the hallway. Ron immediately crouched, and sighed in relief to see himself in the green and out of the spider's sight range. Creeping back around the corner, he leant against the end of the wall. 

_Entered cover! + 60% bonus to defence based upon cover type, height, and body coverage._

Ron blinked, shrugged, and mentally added this to his list of game mechanics. 

Leaning his head around the corner, Ron breathed. 

 _Come on, Weasley._ _You've fought worse than this._

Slowly exhaling, Ron lifted his wand, and hesitated.  _What spell to use?_ He thought, because he remembers vaguely that Acromantulas are more resistant to magic than most. And the spell Harry used in the forest...  _Arania Exumai,_ Ron thinks, only launches them backwards. 

Ron grimaces at Charlie's wand. His current wand magic skills are far to low; general wand-based magic is still at zero, and so is his defence based magic. Ron hesitated. 

Thnking,  _Here goes nothing,_ he raised his wand and muttered,  _"diffindo",_ trying his best to power the spell as much as the unmatched wand would allow. 

A powerful bolt flew out of his wand and sliced the head of the Acromantula. 

_Medium Acromantula killed!_

_No loot gained; no vials to retrieve venom, no known spells to extract carefully. Could have used diffindo on the venom sacks, but would have lost 25% and had a 40% chance to get it on you._

Ron shrugged.  _S'not like I didn't think I'd need new spells,_ he thought in response. 

Ron stood, and moved out from the wall's end. He walked down the hall, grimacing, and stepped over the corpse. 

Mentally shivering, Ron walked a short ways further and saved the game. 

_Saved in [Slot 1]._

* * *

It took a little while for Ron to find anything else. One wall was glowing slightly, and examining it, lead ron to noticing a strange... magical link, he would say, to a wall sconce nearby. 

Ron pulled the sconce and the wall moved, back into itself and off to the left. 

_Discovered secret passage! As [Ron Weasley], you can find secret passages easier than most! Since you, as [Ron Weasley], need all the help you can get at being a decent player character._

Ron glowered at the alert and viciously thought it gone. 

The passage was a small-ish room, with a small chest in the centre. Ron cautiously went over to it, and activated his loot vision. It wasn't purple, surprisingly, so Ron figured that meant there weren't any curses or what have you that might kill him should he try to open it. 

Ron went to do just that, and gained a few things.

_Small loot chest opened!_

_Luck roll... passed! Large bonus granted!_

_15 galleons found!_

_A pair of walking boots, scuffed and second-hand, but the right size, found!_

_No more loot in the chest._

Ron blinked, and looked down. The boots and gold were on the floor. Ron grabbed the galleons, and pocketed them - it seemed containers could hold an unlimited amount of one thing, but a limited amount of multiple. So, you could have, say, 100,000G, and keep adding, but if the container had only two slots you could only put one other type of object in there - say a wand.

Ron then grabbed the boots and equipped them - the game was right, they did fit, and they were quite obviously second hand, but at least these let him sprint - he figured that would be highly necessary. 

Musing at his newfound 'ability', Ron left the room. "Main menu," He called up - as he was alone - and checked the time. Blinking at the lost hours, Ron saw he had shaved off half his time limit. Deciding to explore more at a later date, Ron figured he would wander around the area he's already explored to find more 'enemies', and practice a bit on them for a while. 

* * *

Six game hours later Ron was found to have another two levels in general wand skill, and one in offensive magic. Ron had found the categories a little strange; there was the usual defensive, but there was also offensive rather than curses and dark magic, there was transmutation instead of transfiguration and some charms fell under it, like colour changing charms. There was illusion, which were glamours and the like - so mostly what he considered charms, and a few others which, as far as Ron could see, were blocked until he unlocked them. 

Ron decided it didn't rightly matter, and after closing his character sheet, left the attic. 

* * *

Ron wandered the house, uncertain as to what he was going to do with his last six hours.  _Probably should've just stayed in the Dungeon._ He thought ruefully, but he'd decided upon not doing that, and he'd stick with that choice. 

Something that bothered Ron was how his family acted, as 'game characters'. His mum never seemed to leave the kitchen, his dad was always in the Garage when not at work during the day, the twins were in their room for three hours, then elsewhere for an hour, then gone again - and Ginny was, during the day, nowhere to be seen, as far as Ron had looked -but was always at the broom shed at night.

He knew all this by asking his mum. Apparently, she was there as a tutorial guide - not just as his mum.

Ron was picking at his food (whenever he entered the kitchen, Molly placed food on the table and Ron wasn't exactly one to refuse her - since, well, he'd gone and died on her in his previous life, Ron felt like she deserved all the time with her son that she wished for) while thinking on all of this.

 _There's surprisingly little to do when people don't act like people._ Ron thought, frowning as his mum returned to waving her wand in a complicated pattern over the stew.  _She's done that five times already._

Ron sighed and went back to his food. He wasn't hungry, exactly - in fact, Ron hadn't been hungry at all since returning to 'life' - and Merlin was that the weirdest thing he's ever experienced. Aside from mind-altering Horcruxes and all the shit that happened in his previous life - not needing to eat, at all, ever, just... 

Well, it takes him out of 'it.' Of the pit he sometimes falls into every now and again - a few minutes with Ginny, when she seems like herself and its a normal, good conversation but Ron says something and she stops responding for a good minute as the 'game' updates her on what he's talking about. Stuff like that, and not needing to  _eat,_ really make him stop and think and  _know,_ know that  _his life is a game, and he's the only sentient one around._

For now, Ron hopes. He hopes that's only temporary, only for the tutorial. He thinks he might - will,  _will_ go crazy if it isn't. 

If he sees Harry stop, mid conversation, for a good while because he hasn't a clue what people are talking about. Just stops breathing and stops blinking and  _stops,_ completely and utterly. Hermione, reading a book, but only going down a page with her eyes, turning it over, but having the next page be the same one, a loop of infinite pages of the same text and same content. 

Ron knows he'd go mad if that were to happen one, one time only. So he eats, picks at his food and watches his mum 'cook' food, over and over and never stop. 

"Would you like some pumpkin juice, Ron?" She offered, and he nodded and a cup floated over to the table, the jug levitated out of the fridge and poured a healthy amount of the only drink they had aside from butterbeer and the firewhiskey he'd spied in the top leftmost cupboard, despite the fact that in his previous life they had other drinks like water and milk and all types of juices - since they grow their own foods, that's how they can afford things; their mother tends the garden and sells the food down in the muggle's market, they buy all foodstuffs from the muggle shops for the winter; Mum gets given things from time to time for knitted clothes that keep their kids warm. 

(Ottery is one of  _those_ muggle villages. One that's surrounded by magicals, wizards and witches like the Weasleys and the Lovegoods. They turn a blind eye more than most would, and don't question how their kids can only need a jumper in midwinter. It's been like this since the village was founded, and it will be like this when it's no longer a village.) 

Ron knows if their mum didn't do this, they wouldn't be able to afford much food. And gemino didn't work on food; look at Gamp's laws on transfiguration, gemino counts - and preservation charms only last so long. He's just glad that his mum's dress sense isn't questioned much; robes aren't exactly commonplace in the muggle world. Harry said they didn't have any at all - Ron's just glad wizards adopted trousers from the muggles within the last century. Not all use them, but he's glad most do. 

Aside from that one guy at the quidditch cup. Ron sniggered at the memory, and his mum didn't comment, which put his mood right down. 

Sighing, Ron abandoned his plate. He'd been experimenting with what food and drink did do, if not fill up his hunger, and he'd found they made his health bar show up and glow, and his energy; stamina bar show up and glow, respectively. He figured that meant foods healed him, and drinks reinvigorated him, which seemed like it'd be useful. Glancing at his mother, Ron grabbed some food and drink from the fridge. He didn't have anywhere to put it, not really, so he decided it was time to go visit his dad.

"I'm going out to the quidditch pitch." Ron lied, since he knew his mum would disapprove of his, well, plan. 

"Alright dear." She said, smiling. "While you're out, could you see where the twins are for me? I need them to de-gnome the garden... the little critters are chewing up the cabbages and stealing our potatoes. Not to mention what they do to the poor blackberries..." She complained, muttering. Coughing slightly (and,  _blimey,_ was he ever going to get over the irrational twitch in his eye whenever people do that?) she glanced at him for affirmation. "Yeah, sure mum." Ron agreed easily. "I'll go do that first." 

His mum smiled. "That's a dear, Ronnie. Run along now - and here, take these sandwiches for them." She held out a distracted hand, holding some sandwiches she'd apparently made in the time it took him to get to the doorway. 

Giving a strained smile she didn't register as such, Ron grabbed the sandwiches after shuffling the other food into the grip of his right arm. 

_Quest accepted! Added to journal; Chores and S'mores._

_Find the twins and hand over the food. It's not S'mores, I've no clue why that's in the name of this quest. After doing so (or before... bribery is an option) convince the two to de-gnome the garden. Bonus points if you don't get roped into it, and even more if you get them to go after Percy instead!_

_Rewards: Depending on how it's done, there may be increased RP with the twins._

_Failure: You have to help the twins and, if done completely incorrectly, with Percy. Also a chance at lowering the RP you have with Percy and the twins. Good luck, mate._

Ron sighed.  _Bloody hell._

Ron went out the door, and his vision bled white. 

* * *

 After the world finished forming around him and colour had bled back into view, Ron set off for the Quidditch clearing they'd made a little ways from the house. It wasn't in the wild area, thank Merlin, but it was close enough that Ron pondered going in there 'tomorrow' and having a look around, see if there was anything new to find there. 

Upon arrival, Ron saw the twins practising their beating; one throwing the other the quaffle and the other trying to hit the other with it by swinging their bat at it. 

"Oi!" Ron called out, and one of them (George, Ron dubs) catches the quaffle as Fred goes to land. "Little brother!" He called out, grinning. "What have you come to ask of us Ronnie?" He wondered, teasing slightly. 

Ron sighed, but let it go. It was preferred to 'Ickle Ronniekins' at any rate. 

"Mum wants you two to de-gnome the garden," Ron states bluntly. "There's food in it if you want." He says, conceding to use the 'advice' the journal alert had given him. 

George landed, raising an eyebrow at Fred. "Is our brother dearest  _bribing_ us, Forge?" He pondered, a gleam in his eyes. 

"It seems so, Gred." Fred agreed, considering Ron. "What if we've eaten?" 

Ron was unimpressed. "I know you haven't; I've been in the kitchen since morning, you at least missed lunch."

"He has us there Forge." George admitted. "But what if we'd rather grab some food later, regardless, and just  _say_ we did what was expected?" He offered, that gleam still there.

"Or," Fred mused, "How about we just ask you rather kindly to do it instead?"

Ron mentally paused for a moment, then - "How about Percy?" He asked. "He hasn't done any chores in ages; in fact, I'm pretty sure he hasn't left his room once."

George's eye gleam grew, shall we say, a little more mischievous. "Brother here is right, Gred." He addressed Fred, switching up monikers. "That can't be healthy for our dear older brother; he'll already loose all sense of self at the ministry when he graduates, the least we can do is make sure he gets the chance to." He grins, and Fred considers it. 

"Food, and you have a deal, little brother." Fred says, and Ron chucks up the sandwiches. "Ooh, bacon." George mutters happily. "Really shouldn't have missed lunch," Fred mutters as the two take back to the air to fly back and put away their brooms. The conversation continues, but the two move out of earshot and frankly Ron doesn't much care about that. 

_Quest complete! Rewards granted; Increased RP with [George Weasley]_

Ron raised an eyebrow at that, but dismissed it. It's not like they're the same person literally, so certain actions would improve relationship with one and not the other, he knows that - it's just a little odd that up until now, the game hasn't acknowledged this. 

Shrugging, Ron started walking back to the house. 

_Doesn't matter now anyway. Got to get some storage space for this food._

* * *

 

 As the garage bled back into existence, with the occasional visual glitch, Ron moved over to his dad. 

"Uh, hello." He says, and again, his dad looks up - this time, putting the screwdriver down on the computer monitor and leaving his wand where it was on the table. So that was a little different, Ron noted. 

"What can I do for you son?" He asked jovially, and Ron shrugged, scuffed his shoe on the floor. "I was wondering if you could expand my pocket?" He asked. 

"Is this so you can hide charlie's old wand, or the food you've got there?" He asked grinning, but held up his hand as Ron went to ask how he knew about the wand thing. "Ah - I don't need to know." The expression stayed on his face. "The twins helping you properly?" 

Ron shrugged and nodded, and his dad looked pleased. "Good to hear. Have you been helping Ginny, or at least not letting her be alone and possibly fall without anyone there to get help?"

Ron was a little flabbergasted, to be honest. He was pretty sure his dad had had no idea in his last life about Ginny's late night flying, so he'd been pretty certain he wouldn't know about much of anything this time either. 

 _Time to forget what I think I know,_ Ron thought, perhaps a little gloomy about that.  _People will be different, I should expect that._

"Uh, sometimes." Ron admitted - remembering the one practice he'd had with her, and having flashbacks of a life not lived, where he and Ginny would sneak out at night when 'too young' to fly themselves. His dad nodded approvingly, and Ron felt the slightest pride at that, despite knowing that for all intents and purposes, this wasn't really his Dad - wasn't really Arthur Weasley. 

"Well." His dad moved on. "I know you're responsible enough, so I'll do this and add in a preservation spell. Now, listen closely - you won't be able to do this for a while," He warned, "but it's always good to have the know-how regardless of your ability to use it. This is a seemingly simple yet complicated bit of charms work, expanding space - you can't just wave your wand and have a permanently large bag, you have to do a few spells. I like to think of it - what I do in here-" Mr. Weasley waved a hand around the room, and Ron looked as his dad gestured="Enchanting, in a way. I don't generally use runes unless necessary... and you're far to inexperienced to understand that anyway."

Ron conceded that, then listened and watched as his dad made complicated wand movements over Ron's pocket, and enunciated clearly the spells required. A few minutes later, Ron knew spells he couldn't cast, and had a permanently large pocket which would preserve the contents - and a wink meant he knew that included spelled objects placed inside; those spells would have an extended life so long as they were in the pocket. 

"There are some other charms you can cast... I think it would be best to make the pocket detachable, so you can put it on other robes like, for example, your future Hogwarts ones," His dad explained. "Since this sort of thing is inherently incredibly useful. I have one myself," He added, pointing to his sleeve and then opening a space by pulling a bit of string that was at the frayed end. "But we've run out of time and Molly is no doubt wondering where we are," He chortled. "So run along and tell your mother I'll be right there, it's fine to start dinner without me." Ron was surprised for a moment, but paused the game and saw that, yes, it was two hours before his timer ran out - and the game seemed intent on forcing a 'normal' day on Ron... sort of. So Ron, breathing to, somehow, calm himself, resumed the game and went out of the garage. The Burrow bled into existence around him - he was standing at the entry to the kitchen, the same one he and Fred and George and Harry had used to try and sneak back home after (basically kidnapping) rescuing Harry from the muggles. 

Ron sighed mentally, prepared himself, and sat down. He should get used to this, he thinks,  _because this'll be how it is for a while, I reckon._

As Ron ate, he noticed with some suspicion that the 'animations' for eating were more relaxed and unique to the people around him. Percy was as systematic as he'd been in life; cutting up all food before eating, the twins were joking around and his mother was forcing the food to stay firmly on their plate and their forks and their spoons as they gestured to Ginny's amusement; his sister occasionally having to put down her cutlery and cover her mouth as she laughed. His father smiling happily throughout the meal at his family, and his mother's sharp-eyed look for any kind of food fight that might break out due to the twins' antics, right hand firmly on her wand and a charmed knife cutting up her food. She'd occasionally glance down, then take a few bites then glance up again in time to stop some mashed potato flying, and it would repeat. Percy, however, was still too clunky, and Fred and George were still repeating themselves every minute or so, and Ginny would put her knife and fork down in exactly the same way each time, always placing her left hand over her mouth and brushing her hair back from her face with her right. 

Frowning, Ron ate, considering. He wondered if this was a side effect of the game - perhaps the tutorial was the game adapting to what he knew and remembered, Ron wondered. Maybe it would take a few days for them all to adjust, but maybe they would all end up as human as possible in their actions and personalities. Maybe, after a while, they wouldn't pause for a minute to catch up what they're supposed to know about - maybe, Ron thought, maybe...

_Maybe they'll be themselves soon enough._

Ron took a bite of his steak, and smiled. Things were, perhaps, looking up. 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter again, I know, but I think once we're out of the tutorial and into easier territory (I'm thinking of having a 'game update' before Hogwarts) things will go smoother. This is also technically an alternate universe in that there are alternate sortings and some altered ages, and it uses fanon from a while back for Harry's parentage's parentage, but I think that makes sense in that this is a game of the HP world. Therefore, my reason for making Ron editable makes more sense I hope, and so does how his family seems underdeveloped as characters - They weren't supposed to be met yet 'in game' by the 'Main Character' - as HP is still the Main Man, sorry. It's just like... like a Gamer! fic from another Gamer!'s perspective. There's no massive plot twist, not really, I don't think, but I will not say any more on that. The use of fanon/old fanon as opposed to canon is simple - this is a game made before pottermore and a bunch of other things, I would say. It's a 'game' made by a cosmic deity, yes, but still - they abandoned that universe and are focusing on this one, and since they're basically fanfic writers, then expect a few weird changes like some old fanfic used to have, some old tropes might show up. It's just for a bit of fun, since I didn't write back then and all.


	5. Galloping Gargoyles and Other Wizardly Sayings.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> more stuff happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'mmm baacckkk-  
> Sorry for the wait, whoops. It's kinda difficult keeping track of everything. Sorry about this. I've got the spreadsheet up and running now, so hopefully, I can keep track a little easier.

When Ron woke up, he  _woke up._ Granted, the world still faded into view, but he blinked and the colours were there, he was lying in his bed and the roosters were crowing. 

"Bloody hell," Ron muttered in surprise.  _Their roosters were back._

Ron hadn't heard them since his arrival here. It was strange; all of a sudden being woken up by the crowing of animals he hadn't seen the last couple times he'd gone outside.

Granted, Ron wasn't upset about this. In fact, he was quite pleased - it meant that the game was 'updating', so to speak; that the game was slowly fixing itself and becoming more like Ron's previous life and the fake memories he'd gained. 

With a much brighter mindset, Ron got up. He looted his room again - gained five galleons due to a really good luck roll - and then left his room... without going through that bloody white fade thing. 

"Huh," Ron muttered to himself. 

"I'm getting there first!" Ginny called out, sprinted past at full pelt and span into the bathroom. 

"Damn it, Ginny," Ron felt himself saying; this was something she'd done a lot in both his previous life and the fake memories he had. 

She leaned out, stuck her tongue out at him, grinned, then locked the door behind herself. 

Ron would say he had forgotten what she was like before her first year and the trauma therein - except he now has an entire childhood of memories with that same Ginny. This was very much 'in character', so to speak. 

Since Ron didn't actually need to use the bathroom for any reason (there are some plus sides to this whole 'player character' thing), Ron turned left and went down the stairs. 

"Ron," His mother called out from the kitchen, "Would you be a dear and take this to Arthur for me?" She asked. "I sent the twins to the market and forgot to give them the shopping list, so I'll need to dash out for a moment," Molly explained, and Ron blinked at her. 

"Uh - yeah," He agreed, blindsided. "There you go," She smiled, gratefully, as she handed over a plate full of breakfast foods. "It's Saturday," She added, "So Arthur won't be at work and Ginny will be around. See you in an hour; I'll be in the kitchen."

Ah. There's the game character dialogue he'd been expecting.

And with that, she walked out of the house, bag in hand. Ron sighed and followed suit. 

* * *

  _Quest gained - Bring Me Breakfast!_

_Take breakfast to your dad._

_Reward: you expect a reward for common decency? Sheesh. Ugh, fine; twenty XP._

_Failure: No penalty._

Ron raised an eyebrow, shrugged, and closed his quest book. Ron walked over to his dad and placed the plate next to him on the desk. 

"Hello," Ron said. "Mum asked me to bring you this."

"Ah, thank you, Ron," Arthur said absently, distracted by the lines of text on his screen. 

_Quest complete! Twenty XP rewarded._

"I have another book if you'd like," Arthur added. Ron paused for a moment before he remembered the book he'd basically absorbed previously.

"Yeah, alright," Ron nodded. Why not.

 Ron took the book that his dad offered, opened it, and commanded 'yes'. The information within, while not much better, was a marked improvement on the knowledge the previous book had had. 

"Thanks," Ron said, and Arthur nodded. 

Figuring that to be that, Ron turned around and left the garage. After the outside had 'zoned', so to speak, Ron made a beeline for the wild area. 

He had some training to do. 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is... awfully short, I'm very sorry. I'm just getting a hang of the story again since it's been so long. Which, wow, yikes, I apologize for profusely.


	6. ... You'll Be Sure For A Big Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ron has some training to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I try my hand at action scenes. As you can imagine, since this is kind of my first proper go at action scenes... it doesn't exactly go /well/. 
> 
> Also, apparently, I just love my fairytale titles. I've used this same one for DYWTB and it's just as unoriginal there.

This time, the zoning to the Wild Area was a fade to black and back again, instead of that strange white flash-fade-through. 

Ron wasn't going to complain though. The bloody thing gave him headaches, and he couldn't even  _get_ headaches anymore. At least, from what Ron could gather. 

Regardless - this time, Ron knew that casting any magic wouldn't end up with an owl from the ministry and some serious explaining to do, so he simply marked the trees he passed with a diffindo, using a sort of tally marking system to know how many trees he'd passed. 

Ron was still only level one - so the 'monsters' he came across were generally simply cockroaches magnified by five, which, whilst not the nicest things, weren't exactly dangerous or scary. 

Ron, of course, avoided the area of the woods that was a) much darker than the rest and b) covered in spider webs. _F_ _ucking hell, it's as if the bloody thing's trying to give me a panic attack or something._

Well, that was that - Ron turned around and speed walked in the other direction and made a mental note to avoid west until he had some proper firepower. Meaning about twenty more levels of the offensive magic skill... he just  _really_ doesn't like spiders, alright? 

Anyway - this meant that it took much longer for Ron to find anything interesting. He saw a couple centaurs (which thankfully weren't hostile) and steered clear of them, just in case. He caught a glimpse of a unicorn, but once he'd turned his head it was gone. Then came the acromantula that crept up on him.

"Fuck!" Ron cried out and scrambled backwards. "Fuck fuck fuck - " 

Ron, having dropped his wand, was fairly unable to do much of anything. He desperately threw his hand out to try and activate his controllable accidental magic, but that didn't work. 

"Fuck fuck fuck-" He kept chanting, scrambling backwards - and then it hit him.

Just punch it. 

By this point, Ron had backed himself up to a tree. The acromantula was advancing menacingly, clicking its pincers and standing roughly about Ron's own height, which was terrifying enough thank you very much, except it could also talk and was mocking him. 

"Fuck you," Ron said instead, and thought -  _I gave myself the natural flyer trait, right? And controllable accidental magic. And Flying says there's an ability unlocked at the highest level... and I think I know what that is._

_For now, though..._

Ron planted his feet on the ground, firmly, pressed his hands into the rough bark and thought - 

_wingardium leviosa._

And he was flung straight into the air.

... Probably not his best decision. 

_It worked, though. Blimey - Hermione'd shake her head, but she'd be proud. And Harry'd probably say something like 'brilliant!' and then fling himself off his broom or something equally Harry-like._

Ron's not ashamed to admit he screamed during descent. The acromantula looked like what Ron perceived to be incredulous (on an Acromantula's... face... thing... it was hard to tell). 

Ron plummeted to the ground - but had the brilliant idea to move his arm as if he planned to punch the acromantula into the ground. 

And - 

"... what." 

It  _worked._ Not that Ron's hand didn't hurt - indeed, it smarted a little. But it  _fucking worked._ He didn't go splat on the forest floor, he didn't break his arm, his arm didn't bounce off the acromantula's... whatever as he'd mostly expected - 

It. Fucking. _Worked._

_Merlin's fucking beard._

_Fucking -_ ** _Morgana. I'm that serious._**  

... Ron might be in a little shock right now. It's understandable, really; he should likely have died and... Ron actually hasn't done that yet. Not since his real death, anyway, and he rather doesn't want to relive the experience. 

Also - reloading would be a pain. Thinking of this, Ron saved. Always best to be prepared, after all... especially if you plan on launching yourself into the air and sucker punching an acromantula to death. 

There was a notification scroll blocking his vision that Ron hadn't noticed yet. Likely because his eyes had been squeezed shut for most of the descent and a few minutes after - out of shock, a little fear. Maybe if he couldn't  _see_ his arm break, it wouldn't. 

Regardless - there was a notification. Ron looked at it, askance, before reading the thing in full.

_Ability unlocked!_

_Gravity Punch! Look at you, Mr Inventor! This might as well be a fighting game. Well, it is, actually. A strategy one, in fact, and you'll need abilities later on down the line during battle - your neat little addition will surely only help in the long run._

_Also... fuck you. Why'd you have to go and figure out exploits to the system **already?** Fuck you. We worked hard on this shit. _

_... Well, whatever. Here's what the thing does, I guess:_

_Launch yourself into the air prior to use, or have the 'high-ground' advantage to an enemy. Throw a punch at the enemy for MAXIMUM DAMAGE, thanks to the wonderful force known as broken video game physics. Activatable by thinking really fucking loudly. Seriously, you didn't have to shout, mate, your spell would have worked regardless - but now you've made it that you'll need to shout. Mentally. Ha. I totally got the last laugh. Really. Shut up._

Ron sighed. Well, at least he'd gotten something from all of this aside from snarky remarks that ended in rather lame defensiveness.

* * *

Ron walked a few more - he's not really sure - but regardless, Ron walked deeper into the woods. 

He didn't expect to find a girl not that much younger than himself wandering around with a... picnic basket? And flowers? 

Oh... kay. Then. The Wild areas were pretty strange and murderous, so what she was doing here, Ron had no idea. 

_Wild Event!_

Ron frowned, eyes focused on the text that had popped up in the corner of his vision.

_Quest added! If You Go Down To The Woods Today..._

_Go talk to the girl and see what she's doing in the middle of the woods all alone, picking flowers and holding a basket. I mean, come on. That's weird, right?_

_Reward: ?????SYSTEM ERROR???????_

_Failure: you didn't help the little girl. Shame on you and your family. -10 RP with everyone in the world._

Ron scowled. He  _really_ didn't want to start off life at a -10 RP disadvantage with literally everyone ever; especially not Harry. He - wasn't sure if he was going to try and bring Hermione into the fold this time around... her parents and the little girl he had known didn't deserve what had happened. 

And he'd started at a pretty low RP with her in his previous life anyway. Ron had checked. It was _abysmal._

(It kind of stung that part of that was because she'd thought he was dumb - but then, tiny Hermione had thought  _everyone_ was dumb and that she was the only exception. Ahh, the narcissism of the smart youth. Ron has no fucking clue what he's saying, by the way.)

Starting at a low RP with Harry though? He might as well kiss all chances of being his best mate again good-fucking-bye. Harry wasn't exactly the sort to re-judge people once he'd made his decision, after all. Especially when he was (even more) tiny. 

Ahh, short jokes. They got old  _real_ fast with Ginny, but Harry had found them funny. Thing was, they both gave as good as they got - but Ginny got mad, sometimes, and Harry just... didn't. 

"Fucking - fine," Ron muttered to himself. "Wild events? What the hell even is that shit?"

_I really like semi-current Action-RPGs. The one that mechanic is based on rhymes with Bellout. Bellout... shoe chegas._

What the fuck? Ron grumbled and dismissed the notifi-scroll. 

"Oi," Ron called out to the girl, who yelped and spun around. She had tanned, freckled skin, as if she spent a lot of time outside - given her current venture, Ron thought that was likely - and short black hair. "Hey!" She cried out, petulant. Her eyes - dark grey, kind of on the small side with low set eyebrows above which gave her a permanently slightly sad expression - narrowed at him in suspicion. 

"What are you doing deep in the dark woods?" She asked. "You ought to know it's not safe out here. Mother said to never stray from the path, yet you came from off of it. How am I to know I can trust you?"

Ron frowned at her, and she pouted. "Plus - you  _scared_ me." She muttered, indignant. 

"You're the one mucking about in my backyard," Ron grumbled. God, Ginny wasn't this annoying at eight. Right?

Or maybe he'd been just as annoying. Ron grimaced at the thought.

... yeah, he probably was just as annoying. Crap.

" _Your_ backyard?" She asked, eyes still narrowed. "This is  _my_ backyard, and I'm off to see my grandmother. She lives just down the road a ways, and she's very ill. I'm taking her some food -" The girl lifted her basket, indicating it with her other hand (the one holding the flowers) -"And then I'll be off home again."

"If she's ill," Ron frowned, "What were you doing picking flowers, then?" 

The girl looked slightly guilty for a moment before it went away. "A rather lovely wolf-man told me they were very pretty, and they most certainly are - look!"

Ron didn't look at the flowers. He gawked at the girl. 

"What?" She demanded, indignant. "Don't you mean werewolf?" Ron demanded, suddenly fearful. If there was a werewolf in these woods... well. Chances were that he (considering she called the wolf a man) isn't anything like Lupin. 

"No," She frowned at him, "And why would you call this wonderful being anything so horrible? why, I should slap you on his behalf for the insult."

"Think about it," Ron insisted. "You're on your way to your gran's. This 'wolf-man' comes out of nowhere and tells you about flowers then buggers off? What are you supposed to think other than 'that was an obvious distraction tactic, I should make sure gran's okay?'"

The girl suddenly looked stricken. "Oh no!" She cried out. "What terrible trickery! Quick, we must go save her!" And with that, the girl dropped her basket, turned, pulled up the hood of her cloak - slightly out of fashion within the wizarding world's 'high elite' which is saying something - and sprinted off in what Ron assumed to be a north-ish direction.

Ron, after quickly saving, ran after her. If he didn't, the girl was likely to get herself killed.

"Hold up!" He called out. "You can't just rush on in there!" He shouted. "There needs to be a plan!"

"There's not the time for a plan!" She called in response, skidding to a halt behind some bushes and catching Ron before he could sprint on past her. "We're here," She said, hushed. 

"We're going to go in. One of us will sneak in from the window, and the other will distract the evil wolf-man until either help arrives or the other finishes him as he is due."

"Wait - you want to kill him?" Ron asked. 

"Well of course," She frowned at Ron from under her hood. "He has likely eaten my grandma. Eaten her. Whole. All at once. Down the gullet-"

"Yes, alright," Ron interrupted. This was part of the video game, after all. Ron hoped he wasn't part of one of those 'plot twist' quests the game talked about... but he felt it was a little too early for that, level-wise, anyway. 

"Well," The girl seemed to steel herself. "Shall you do the sneaking, or I?"

"I will," Ron said, immediately. Sneaking, he could cheat the system. But with charisma - his stat was terrible. It was far more likely for him to screw that up than this girl, who had probably been made with this specific quest in mind; able to do either so long as the player could do the other. 

The girl nodded. "You may call me Red," She said, imperiously. "Everyone does."

"Why?" Ron asked. She frowned at him. "Don't be obtuse," She chastised. "My riding hood, of course. It's red, you see." She over-explained, and Ron got the distinct feeling this was 'Red's' way of insulting him.

"Ron," He said. 

"A pleasure despite the circumstances," She murmured. "If you aid me in this, I shall forever be in your debt."

_Quest updated!_

_If You Go Down To The Woods Today..._

_Luck roll... succeded! High reward gain!_

_Reward updated!_

_Reward: gain Red Riding Hood's favour! She shall join you in all future wild-area battles and will aid you in general by permanently increasing your CHR by 1! Any debuffs will not remove this additional Charisma, and it will stack above your usual Charisma limit. Lucky you! Since Red is in your party, you can call her up at any time, and she will age alongside yourself. If you can figure out how to get her and magic to cooperate, she can even go to Hogwarts and aid in Hogwarts' forbidden forest battles!_

Huh. That seemed... useful. 

"Let's go," Red said, confidently. "Give me a minute, then go in the window in the back. Once I've opened the pantry, the door should give you enough cover to drop in. After that, it's a matter of lying low."

"Alright," Ron agreed. "Lead the way."

_Party: The Fairytale Group, Created! Leader: Defaulted to [Ron Weasly] as no other Leader-enabled characters are available._

Ron blinked.  _What?_

_Hey there! So you've joined your first party. Congrats! Most don't get theirs until Hogwarts' first proper party instance, which is ages away for you, so well fuckin' done, mate!_

_Regardless, I'm betting you want to know what the hell a party is. Well, right now, I hate to admit the code on that isn't quite finished, so Parties are a little buggy, however, all the features are there! You can command your other party member; think of it as playing chess. Parties are really, really important for battles, as their combined powers are far more than you could ever have alone, and as an added bonus, it enables the strategic battle mode! Higher levels of CHR increase the number of party members you can have at a current time, however people like [Red Riding Hood] don't take up a slot, but they're super rare, so well done for rolling that luck roll!_

_Not that that was anything you did in particular. You were just lucky._

_(It's a fucking broken stat, luck, but I figure you knew that already. Oh well. Not much we can do about it now.)_

Ron read it through, carefully, then closed the box.

It had been long enough, Ron figured, and so he went over to the window. As expected, the door was open as was the window itself, so all Ron had to do was climb in. 

"My, what big eyes you have, Grandma!" Red said. _B_ _est make this quick._

Ron went into stealth mode - and there, the floor was green but on top of the couch didn't have any colour. He climbed onto it, and neither Red nor the actual fucking wolf-man,  _what_ (think about that later) - saw him. Ron moved from surface to surface, arrived at the kitchen counter and grabbed the pan from the old-fashioned cooking pot, then turned around.

"All the better to see you with, my dear," The wolf-man badly posing as an old lady said. Ron could see Red's carefully concealed fist clench in anger, even as she smiled politely, a ditzy sort of expression.

Ron crept over to the two, stayed on top of furniture as much as he could. Threw the couch's cushions onto the floor in the green, dropped onto them and did a slightly awkward shuffle towards the red, in order to get closer to the wolf-man and Red herself.

Ron didn't bother announcing himself. He simply bonked the wolf over the head with the pan, just before the wolf-man could answer Red's exclamation of "My, what big teeth you have, Grandma!" 

Ron stepped off the cushion and Red blinked as he stood from a crouched position. 

"Where did you come from?" She demanded. "What-"

Before she could answer, there was an almighty  _crash,_ the result of the door being chopped off its hinges and falling to the floor.

"Hey!" Red called out. "That took a long time to build, you know!"

Ron sighed and readied his cooking pot. He rather thought the two probably looked a little ridiculous - Ron in his wizarding robes and walking boots and this girl in the centuries-old even by the traditionalist wizards' standards red riding hood and general getup. 

Aside from the picnic basket. Ron figured that was a pretty new thing, right?

(Don't ask him. He failed history.)

"I'm -" 

The woodsman that had broken down the door (which, by the way, Red was still going on about) stopped in his tracks at the sight of an unconscious wolf-man, an eleven-year-old kid in a robe holding a pan and a little girl in a bright red hooded cloak.

"It appears I'm late, then," The woodsman frowned. "Hmm." 

"You expected to be needed?" Ron asked, suspicious. 

"Woodsman  _was_ always jealous of grandmother's house," Red muttered, eyes narrowed. "I say we kill him."

"What?" Ron blinked at her. "No!"

Red frowned, petulant. "Fine," She muttered. "Give me the axe," She demanded, eyeing the Woodsman like one might eye their worst enemy. One they'd perhaps like to flay alive.

The Woodsman handed over the axe.

Red turned around and slammed the axe across the wolf's neck, and Ron had to jump backwards to avoid the blood. 

"Shit!" He cried out. "Red, what - Merlin's-"

Ron didn't get to finish that, as Red set about cutting open the wolf's stomach. Both Ron and the Woodsman were both utterly speechless as Red did this - the Woodsman attempted to back up out of the cottage but Red turned a steel-eyed glare in his direction and he sat down, firmly, onto the couch. 

It was official. Ron had made a terrible decision today. 

What happened moments later - a thing that, well, nearly made both Ron and the Woodsman vomit - was that somehow, against all odds, Red pulled her grandmother free from the stomach of the wolf. 

"Granny!" She cried out, took off her undercoat and draped it around the woman's - well, blood-and-who-knows-what-else covered torso. 

"My dear Maghenyld", Red's grandmother murmured - voice hoarse. "Thank you for your great deed today."

"It was not me alone, Grandma!" Red exclaimed. Merlin, Ron knew why she went by Red now if  _that_ was her name. He didn't have a clue how to even  _start_ pronouncing that. 

"This Ron aided me in my rescue of you!" She added, glancing in Ron's direction. 

"And a finer young man there never was," The Grandmother said, gratefully, "If there is anything you need, son, anything at all - don't hesitate to ask. You helped save a life today, as well as saving a young girl heartache. I cannot thank you enough."

Ron blinked at the praise, but he figured it was probably warranted. "Your Red was the one to kill the beast,  **Rosamund," The Woodsman said, gruffly.**

**"I am aware," The grandmother replied, cooly. "Please, fix the door on your way out."**

**The Woodsman winced. Ron took a proper look at him and was surprised by the youth hidden by his beard and many, many scars.**

**Well. He _was_ a Woodsman that apparently hunted 'beasts' on a regular basis. That's rather likely to age you prematurely. **

**"Understood," The Woodsman replied.**

**"Oh, and Ralf?" 'Rosamund' asked. "Yes?" He replied.**

**"Don't ever use me as bait again."**

**The Woodsman winced and turned around before he picked up the door and took a few tools from his pockets and started to work.**

**Ron turned back to the grandmother and her granddaughter.**

**"Thank you," Red said, sincerely. "I hope we may become friends following this."**

**Ron nodded, awkwardly. She'd just cut a wolf-man's head off and opened up his stomach; Ron knows when not to argue. Sometimes. This - is one of those times.**

**"Yeah," He said. Red smiled, nodded - and disappeared.**

_**Quest complete!** _

_**If You Go Down To The Woods Today...** _

_**Wild Event one complete! You have unlocked future wild events!** _

_**Reward - companion; Red Riding Hood - gained!** _

_**CHR Now at 7! Base CHR now 1 instead of 0!** _

_**Ding ding! You've levelled! Time to check your character sheet to see what you can spend and what you can sell and what you can buy!** _

**Ron grinned. He left the broken down shack that had replaced Rosamund's home before opening the menu so that he would have some light, and then took a look at his character sheet.**

_**You are now Level 2! Slightly less of a Pureblooded-Noob, but not much less. Maybe more of a newbie than a noob.** _

_**You have: enough to upgrade one stat and add some health or mana (or both!). You will need 400 XP for the next level up.** _

_**(You may add all your available points to health or mana, but you do not have enough for more than one stat upgrade.)** _

**Ron shrugged. He decided he'd come back to this later after he'd checked if any traits/abilities had any pre-requisites.**

_**You have five trait points. you can buy back Goody Gryffindors, or you can buy any of the following:** _

 

_CONSTANT VIGILANCE! [locked; need to reach instance 'fourth year' of Hogwarts and have successfully completed Mad Eye's first class.]_

_Surprise Inheritor: Money money money, must be funny - oh, wait, you won't get that reference. Uh. Awkward. Anyway... this gives you money, at the expense of a random family member dying. One you don't know, of course. Just someone you're related to. A permanent +30000 galleons to your bank account, no matter what you spend, but also -100 RP points with your family. Who cares, right? You're rich!_

Ron glared at the sheet. "No thanks," He said, viciously, before moving on. 

_Third time's the charm: Every third day, your luck is increased by 1, and on this day, every third luck roll has its chances for success doubled and failures halved._

Ron blinked and immediately took that one.

_you have no trait points. Go elsewhere, or sell a trait for its points._

_You have no traits to sell. Go elsewhere._

Ron rolled his eyes and went over to abilities.

_You need to find some ability perks to level up your abilities, or you need to go out and use them more! Abilities can be made or discovered or created with the use of a perk orb, but aside from that, this sheet can be used to track your current progress!_

_You have two abilities that can be levelled; Parseltongue and Gravity Punch._

Ron shrugged and went back to the stats menu, before dropping a plus one to strength. Next, he'd do endurance and then vitality, then he'd make everything even with luck. Ron figured eight was an okay base stat for everything, at least early game. 

Ron added the rest equally into health and mana, making them now at an equal 260. 

Ron nodded to himself and closed the menu. Time to go home, he figured. 

* * *

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry??? I'll improve promise. 
> 
> (I... wouldn't be lying if I said I was using this story as a guinea pig for my action scene writing ability. Given the clunkiness of that previous sentence... yeah. This didn't go well.)

**Author's Note:**

> I had major inspiration, then ran out. This is what i wrote instead of what i said i'd write, because it wouldn't leave me alone. I may not continue, but I'll try my best. (ugh, why do I put so much work on my plate ffs Cesca-)


End file.
